Lincoln Mali, CEO of Lesaka Southern Africa.
Fintech firm Lesaka Technologies is looking forward to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) opening the payments market to non-banking players.
So said Lincoln Mali, CEO of Lesaka Southern Africa, today in an interview with ITWeb, after the JSE- and Nasdaq-listed company announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2025 (Q3 2025).
SARB recently announced its intention to include non-bank entities in the national clearing and settlement system.
This move forms part of the central bank’s strategy to broaden financial inclusion, particularly for South Africa’s unbanked and underbanked populations.
By enabling participation from fintech companies, retailers and mobile network operators, SARB aims to support more accessible and efficient payment solutions beyond traditional banking channels.
The initiative is expected to strengthen the role of innovative financial service providers in reaching underserved communities and enhance transactional convenience across the country.
“There are some changes that are being mooted by the Reserve Bank that enable non-bank participants to fully participate in the payments ecosystem without requiring a bank. If those regulations go as we wish, we foresee non-bank participants taking advantage of this,” Mali said.
“We have been a catalyst in the formation of the Association for South African Payment Providers (ASAPP), launched by eight of the largest non-bank digital payment providers in South Africa three months ago.”
Today, ASAPP announced the organisation’s expansion to include four new members.
With Altron, Hello Group, iKhokha, Lesaka, Network International/Payfast by Network, Peach Payments, Shop2Shop and Yoco as founders of this industry body, this week sees ASAPP add Cross Switch, PayU, Flash Group and Paycorp, it says in a statement.
Together, these fintech players represent a larger portion of SA’s non-bank payment sector. With their combined influence, they believe they are better positioned to promote financial inclusion by advocating for greater support and participation of non-bank payment providers in the local payment landscape.
“The addition of these four new fintech leaders to ASAPP brings additional expertise, innovation and drive to strengthen our collective efforts in shaping a more inclusive, secure and accessible payments ecosystem in South Africa,” says Mali, who is also ASAPP president.
The premise of ASAPP is to promote fair access to payment infrastructure, reduce the wholesale cost of digital payments, and enhance transparency and customer mobility for individuals and businesses.
Regarding other fintech opportunities in SA, Mali believes the use of cash is going to decline.
“What is not predictable is the velocity of that change, but cash will come down and fintechs will be well-positioned for that.”
To create a more sustainable and inclusive economy, there is a clear need to modernise and broaden the payment system for greater inclusion – the driving force behind the establishment of ASAPP.
Meanwhile, in Q3 2025, Lesaka posted revenue of R2.5 billion, which it says was at the midpoint of the company’s revenue guidance, and compares to R2.6 billion in Q3 2024.
It adds that net revenue of R1.4 billion was at the midpoint of net revenue guidance, increasing 43%, from R950.6 million in Q3 2024.
Operating income of R10.9 million was lower than operating income of R15 million in Q3 2024 given the inclusion of R42.3 million once-off transaction costs in Q3 2025, compared to R17.1 million in Q3 2024.
Net loss, including a tax-adjusted R310.6 million non-operating, non-cash change in fair value of Mobikwik (a non-core asset) charge, increased to R404.3 million compared to a net loss of R76.4 million in Q3 2024, says the firm.
Group adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of R236.8 million improved 29% from R183.3 million in Q3 2024, in line with guidance provided, it adds.
The firm points out that merchant division revenue decreased 10% to R1.9 billion, net revenue increased 58%, to R782.2 million, and segment adjusted EBITDA increased by 7%, to R149.9 million.
For the consumer division, revenue and net revenue increased 32% to R445.8 million and segment adjusted EBITDA increased 65%, to R117.1 million.
“We are very pleased with the overall results. I think the results show a strong record because this is now the 11th consecutive quarter that we have met our EBIDTA guidance. It shows that we can reaffirm our guidance in difficult times for the full year 2025 results,” commented Mali.
“We are also using these results to reaffirm the guidance that we gave to the market for 2026, which is R1.25 billion to R1.5 billion. We have also given the market a sense that we will be net income positive in financial year 2026.
“We’ve had a record quarter, and we think that we will still be able to grow our account base and be able to cross-sell our lending and insurance businesses. We think that our merchant business – now with the Adumo business – will add more scale.”
He added that the company is still looking for acquisitions “as long as they add to the scale of the platform. We will always be looking to grow organically, but we also have plans to consolidate.”
