South Africa’s small to medium enterprises (SMEs) no longer view banks simply as places to open an account or store cash. They expect an end-to-end business partner offering integrated platforms to manage bookings, stock and inventory management, payroll, and point-of-sale operations alongside traditional banking.This is according to Norman Nyawo, head of merchant solutions for business and commercial banking at Standard Bank, who describes the evolving digital payments landscape for SMEs in the country. “Gone are the days where you know they just walked in and wanted a bank account to transact. They’re actually looking for a business partner,” says Nyawo.“We’ve moved away really from offering just pure banking products, to actually providing a business platform, which enables the SMEs to look at their business holistically and understand how their business is making money.”We’ve moved away really from offering just pure banking products, to actually providing a business platform, which enables the SMEs to look at their business holistically and understand how their business is making money— Norman Nyawo, head of merchant solutions for business and commercial banking at Standard BankNyawo emphasises the importance of reducing the administrative burden on business owners so they can focus on their core operations.“Generically, SMEs should spend time serving customers, not the administration. If you’re focused more on that administrative portion, it really takes away from what’s core to your business, which is selling products and making money,” he says.Asked about Standard Bank’s efforts to reduce payment-related and other operational pressures for SMEs, Nyawo said the bank was working to address several challenges facing small businesses, adding that one of the the biggest challenges for SMEs was cash flow. One of Standard Bank’s solutions in this area is flexible financing through BizFlex, where loan repayments are automatically deducted as a portion of point-of-sale transactions. “It allows businesses to then pay it off slowly, every day, without having to do a big lump sum at the end of the month,” Nyawo says.As Africa’s largest lender, the bank also has to consider challenges that affect businesses across the market. “We know that electricity, network reliability and stability is a challenge,” he says. In this environment, providing merchants with point-of-sale devices that run on battery power as opposed to terminals that have to be constantly plugged in is valuable for business owners. These devices also support multiple SIM cards, and the ability to connect to Wi-Fi as a backup. “Even if there’s no power in your area, you can still continue running,” he says. While cash continues to dominate informal transactions, digital payment adoption is growing rapidly through mobile wallets, tap-to-pay, and QR codes.Nyawo highlights the importance of reducing the friction between cash and digital payments. Put simply, merchants should be able to accept whichever payment method their customers choose. This remains a major sticking point for many business owners, as consumers’ payment preferences can range from being heavily cash-based to almost entirely digital. While banks and players in the financial technology (fintech) sector continue digital alternatives to cash, Nyawo acknowledges the realities of life in South Africa with a simple maxim: “Cash is king, and digital is queen.”The idea was not to eliminate cash, “but to make digital acceptance so simple and valuable that it can be adopted alongside cash”. Rather than completely eliminating cash, the focus is reducing friction, lowering transaction costs and enabling interoperability through initiatives such as PayShap, which allows instant, real-time settlements.“The introduction of something like a PayShap is trying to bring down the cost of handling a digital payment to almost the same level as having a digital wallet or card,” Nyawo says. With 14 participating banks and over 905-million transactions since launching in 2023, PayShap surpassed 6-million registered users in April 2026, indicating growing adoption for the platform. A key part of Nyawo’s mission is to dispel old notions that card acceptance is expensive for SMEs.“For an SME, it’s about having real-time settlement into your account immediately. Cash flow is important for small business. The ability to be settled in real time and instantly is quite a game changer,” he says.This highlights the importance of innovation that addresses the real-world challenges businesses face. The excitement surrounding the latest technology and new ways of doing things can come at the cost of practical utility for merchants.“The best payment innovation is usually one where the customer barely notices it, right? The way we achieve that is by making sure that we’re solving for real business problems. Introducing something cool, but not being able to solve a real business problem, doesn’t do anything for the SME,” says Nyawo. Real-world problem-solving is driving modern retail tools, such as embedded payments on social media or selling directly through social media platforms. In addition, artificial intelligence-driven store setup tools are allowing merchants to launch e-commerce sites in minutes.“These are embedded payments into WhatsApp, Instagram, or any sort of social media platform. If someone does like your products, in real time, they can make a payment. They don’t have to find out where your store is. It’s about the speed of transacting that we’re solving for them.”Listen now:This article was sponsored by Standard Bank.