There are many challenges that small businesses face in South Africa, and getting paid is one of them. More and more people are turning away from cash and looking to transact electronically and, as a whole, this means credit cards. For small businesses that may be just covering their costs, this presents a challenge in that the overheads for card acceptance have typically made it an unviable option.

This was brought home to me at the beginning of the year when I needed to get my kids their back-to-school haircuts. I was at a small, home-based hair salon. Since I had no cash on me, I started to look around to see if the hairdresser had a card machine. She didn’t, but was nice enough to let me transfer the money later. When I asked why she didn’t take cards, she said that it was just too expensive for her.