We have prepared context and insights about this week’s leading news. The stories are:
- Why TymeBank is taking the government to court
- MTN enters the cloud market in Nigeria
- Africa’s getting its own card game together
Why TymeBank is taking the government to court
A 6,500% increase in ID verification fees is now the reality in South Africa. TymeBank, the digital unicorn bank, says it’s a direct attack on financial inclusion, and it’s heading to court.
Zoom in: The fee hike, pushed through by the Department of Home Affairs, raises the cost of verifying an ID from just R0.15 to R10 per check. For a typical onboarding process that requires two verifications, biometric and demographic, that’s R20 right off the bat. Add in card issuance and KYC processing, and the cost to onboard one Social Relief of Distress (SRD) recipient jumps from R55 to around R75. Multiply that across a million customers, and TymeBank is looking at an extra R20 million (~$1.1 million) it says it simply can’t absorb.
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Last updated: July 2, 2025
