ABSTRACT
Financial inclusion plays a vital role in transforming the lives of previously disadvantaged people in South Africa. Many people in rural areas often do not have easy access to financial services and end up relying on cash. The prevailing cash economy in rural South Africa has the effect that many adults, even those with bank accounts, do not use their bank accounts regularly and are therefore not truly financially included. Access to digital financial services (including smartphones, websites, computers and automatic teller machines) can be a solution to enable people to use their bank accounts regularly. Challenges to using digital financial services that poor and low-income earners in rural South Africa experience include insufficient information and communications infrastructure, no access to smartphones and/or cell phone data, the digital capability of individuals and the lack of digitised informal trading. This chapter recommends that broadband network and data coverage be raised to underserved areas and that point-of-sale (POS) technology at spaza shops and informal vendors be extended so that customers can pay digitally. Digital transformation can assist poor and low-income earners in rural South Africa who have bank accounts to overcome challenges so that they can use their bank accounts regularly.
