Swiss Fintech BPC eyes South Africa’s taxi industry for digital payments drive

Leading global payments technology firm BPC is eyeing South Africa’s taxi industry as a key frontier for growth, as it explores ways to transition the largely cash-based sector to digital transactions.

According to the Competition Commission’s Public Transport Market Inquiry, the taxi industry comprises an estimated 15,000 vehicles and generates approximately R90-billion in annual revenue.

The sector plays a vital role in transporting commuters, particularly in communities with limited access to alternative forms of public transport. However, its heavy reliance on cash means many operators have limited digital records of the money flowing through their businesses.

Craig Albertson, BPC’s managing director for sub-Saharan Africa, said the company sees an opportunity to introduce digital payment solutions that could help taxi operators track revenue, monitor operating costs and improve overall financial management.

Albertson was speaking at BPC’s Client Conference in Cape Town this week, held to mark the company’s 30 years of building payment infrastructure across emerging markets.

BPC, a financial technology company headquartered in Switzerland, provides banking, payment processing and digital commerce solutions.

Its SmartVista platform supports financial institutions, payment service providers, businesses and transport operators through services ranging from electronic payments and merchant acquiring to automated fare collection.

At the conference, the company explored developments in financial technology and payment systems, including the potential role of digital payments in the taxi industry.

Albertson said cash remains deeply embedded in the sector despite the benefits of digitisation.

“The big issue with the taxi industry is the owners of the taxi fleets would love digital. They would love to know what amount of money they are moving, the running costs looking at the vehicles … operators would love digitisation but operators do not want it to be digitised for all sorts of obvious reasons. So, cash does remain king,” said Albertson.

He said digitisation could make it easier for owners to determine how much revenue each vehicle generates and whether fare collections correspond with passenger numbers. It could also reduce the administrative burden of collecting, counting and reconciling cash across multiple vehicles.

BPC has begun engaging industry stakeholders to gauge their willingness to adopt digital banking solutions and to better understand concerns that may hinder widespread adoption.

The South African Reserve Bank’s Digital Payments Roadmap has identified the minibus taxi industry as a sector where digital payments could improve efficiency and financial inclusion.

The roadmap highlights options such as contactless card payments, QR codes, mobile payments and request-to-pay services. It also notes that the lack of payment acceptance infrastructure remains a barrier for commuters who already have access to digital payment methods.

Albertson pointed to the technology used in Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya bus system as an example of how digital payments and passenger-counting technology can improve fare revenue tracking.

“Rea Vaya in Johannesburg came on to our technology, they wanted to remove the cash movement. In fact, this is what our partners have done, they have a people-counter camera that sits in the buses as part of the solution, they can collaborate how many people got into the buses versus the money.

“With the digitisation and the tap and go, the drivers are not able to go back and fiddle the books in terms of the money cash,” he said.

The system combines passenger-counting technology with electronic fare payments, allowing operators to compare the number of passengers boarding with recorded transactions. This helps identify discrepancies between passenger volumes and revenue collected.

Albertson said the fragmented nature of the taxi industry adds to the complexity of implementing digital payment solutions at scale.