Why is the rise in mobile money a test for SA's financial resilience?

South Africa recently celebrated Independence Day, but it's worth asking what financial freedom looks like digital age.

there are about According to the GSMA, 6 million South Africans are still unbanked or underbankedBut those who have access to cell phones. This is where mobile money services provide a clear path towards financial inclusion, as players like M-PESA have proven. Kenya, which has a mobile money penetration rate of 87%.

It is an amazing case of technological leap, but to ensure that its momentum is not disrupted, we need to look at how to secure such a vast digital space.

In South Africa, only 32% of adults use mobile money services, largely due to the current banking penetration of 75%. Still, those who rely on mobile money services to store, send, and receive money without the need for a traditional bank account need to know that the platforms they are using are secure.

Mobile payment systems are digital “railroads” that move money across the country, connecting millions of previously unbanked citizens to the economy.

As such, digital security for mobile money transactions should be considered essential to critical infrastructure and the economy like electricity or roads.

Since mobile money is the gateway to financial inclusion, it is important that this gateway remains secure. Mobile services are the primary access point for financial transactions in many parts of Africa.

However, even as mobile-first banking is accelerating financial inclusion across the continent, it is also expanding the attack surface for mobile-based fraud, including SIM-swap attacks.

According to one, in South Africa alone, about 60% of mobile banking fraud cases are linked to SIM-swap attacks. 2025 Telecommunications Security Report from the Communications Risk Information Center (COMRiC). The same report estimates that telecommunications fraud costs the country approximately R5.3 billion per year.

As financial services become more mobile and cloud-powered, cybersecurity is becoming a fundamental part of financial stability. This is necessary to protect payment systems from external shocks. operational flexibility It is believed.

Historically, regulators have encouraged banks to become flexible through guidelines and best practices. But now regulators are making flexibility a legal requirement.

Increasingly, financial regulators are requiring banks to prove that they can keep critical digital and financial services running during cyberattacks, outages or other disruptions using similar regulatory models. EU Dora Framework.

A major part of this type of flexibility depends on data sovereignty and the importance of keeping critical data within the country. This is especially important in an era where financial services are increasingly dependent on global cloud platforms and digital ecosystems.

A disruption in a cloud provider, a cyberattack on a third-party service or a breakdown in data governance can quickly cause disruption across the financial sector. So ensuring that security oversight and data oversight remain within national jurisdiction is generally also a matter of financial sovereignty.

Ultimately, the success of mobile money and digital banking depends on one thing above all: trust.

For millions of South Africans entering the formal financial system for the first time, a mobile device effectively acts as a bank branch in their pocket. If that gateway is compromised through fraud, cyberattacks or system outages, the consequences go far beyond financial losses. This could reduce trust in digital services and slow down progress on financial inclusion.

Independence Day reminds us that freedom is not just political – it is also economic. The ability to securely save, send, and receive money is a fundamental part of participating in modern society and the global economy as a whole.

Mobile money and digital banking have the potential to bring millions of South Africans into the financial system. But as the financial sector becomes more connected and cloud-driven, the resiliency and security of these systems will become as important as their accessibility.

If South Africa wants to deliver on the full promise of financial inclusion, the next step is to ensure that the digital infrastructure behind mobile finance is secure, resilient and trustworthy.