The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is exploring ways to increase grant payment channels available to beneficiaries. It is believed that an increase in payment channels could ensure its 18 million grant beneficiaries can access their money more quickly and reduce costs in the process.
Currently, Sassa grant beneficiaries can collect their money at a Post Office, ATM or at one of several participating retailers. These retailers include Shoprite, Checkers, U-save, Pick ‘n Pay and Boxer stores.
As part of its intention to diversify the grant payment channels available to beneficiaries, Sassa is looking at onboarding spaza shops. It is believed that these plans are at an advanced stage.
Sassa was working with two spaza shop groups. To be part of this initiative, spaza shop owners had to be legally registered South Africans. This was also the case to avoid any unnecessary risk that could compromise compliance with the requirements of the financial system.
The main aim of this partnership was to ensure that beneficiaries could easily access payments at the local level.
Allowing Spaza shops to pay grants could be beneficial in areas without Post Office branches. This would allow beneficiaries to access payment channels in areas where they resided and won't require them to spend money on travelling if they do not need to.
“In areas without post offices, since they were part of a national payment channel, they could use alternative channels such as retailers and bank ATMs, as well as mobile cash pay points” explained the agency.
They added that this new payment channel could also be beneficial for disaster-stricken areas. As sometimes disasters can make a Post Office inaccessible.
The grant payment agency also encourages beneficiaries to use their Sassa gold cards for purchases. It was resolved that this reduces costs for both Sassa and Postbank.
Sassa also believes that when grant beneficiaries use their gold cards, it reduces the risk of fraud or the likelihood of beneficiaries being robbed because they are carrying a large amount of cash.
