Challenge

High cost associated with cross-border transfers due to lack of competition. While some countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region have a well-established financial services system with a closedloop intra-regional payments system, high costs, low speed, limited access, and limited transparency affected cross-border payments (SADC PSOC, 2021). In SADC, these issues are primarily due to regulatory costs of compliance and the costs associated with maintaining complex bilateral relationships. This is further affected by the lack of widespread competition in the formal financial system, which is capitalized by well-established and active commercial financial services and contributes to the significant price point barrier for the average SADC end user.

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