Supporting Interoperable Low-Value Remittance Settlement Systems in SADC

IFAD is partnering BankserveAfrica under the PRIME Africa initiative to promote competition among a diversity of RSPs through a regional and interoperable platform, TCIB, that promotes more affordable low-value cross-border payments in the SADC region. TCIB will improve the cross-border payment process, standardize compliance requirements, remove the need for complex bilateral cross-border arrangements, and create more competition in the formal financial system.

Budget:

Financed: €175,000
Co-Financed: €93,550

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Duration: 2023 ~ 2025

Project Category Remittances & Digitalisation

Target Groups:

All RSPs providing low-value remittance services to Mozambique and Zimbabwe corridors.

Programme

FFR Strategic Framework

PRIME Africa

Project Goals

Promote competition among remittance service providers (RSPs) by scaling up Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB).

Implementing Partners

BankservAfrica is a leading payment processing organization across African markets operating from South Africa since 1972, supporting interbank and interoperable payment systems in various African countries and at the regional level in SADC. TCIB is a regional and interoperable payment scheme that promotes more affordable low-value, cross-border payments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, while enlarging access to pay out access points for rural recipients.

Geographic Target

Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Outcomes

The project to date has achieved significant progress in the uptake of TCIB across the targeted PRIME corridors.
The project launched full-scale workshops where BSA articulated the value proposition of TCIB. BanservAfrica also engaged with regulators, banking associations in other African countries followed by workshops attended by payments providers in the cross-border payments market.
Through the PRIME Africa project, TCIB has been continuing to refine the business proposition and processes for integration into TCIB and create awareness among banks and non-bank financial service providers across the SADC region.
As of Feburary 2024, they have 56 members, 16 participants (with their licence approval) and 2 operators transacting. The first corridor has just gone live for processing cross-border payments between two non-banks from South Africa to Zambia. The South Africa to Zimbabwe corridor is due to go live in the next months.
In terms of corridor activation, the biggest challenge in Mozambique was a restrictive regulatory environment for non-banks. BankservAfrica completed a mapping of all the stakeholders relevant to the TCIB scheme in the Mozambique and Zimbabwe corridors. This was used to develop a country engagement strategy based on the identified needs of the stakeholders.

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