Nuvei has obtained authorisation from the Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) to provide local merchant payment services in South Africa. With this addition, the company’s local acquiring infrastructure now covers 52 markets. Both international brands and domestic businesses will be able to access the new South African capabilities through Nuvei’s single global payments platform.
Part of the ‘Every Payment Everywhere’ strategy
The authorisation forms part of Nuvei’s ‘Every Payment Everywhere’ strategy. Under it, the company is building a presence within domestic payment ecosystems so that businesses can optimise payment performance in each market where they operate. The South African addition brings local acquiring, payment acceptance infrastructure, transaction data, and operational controls in the country into the same platform.
Phil Fayer, Chair and CEO of Nuvei, described the move in terms of the gap between global commerce and locally determined payment performance. According to the company, the expansion is intended to create opportunities in two directions: for international businesses entering the region, and for South Africa-based companies expanding into other markets.
Market context
According to research published by PayNXT360, South Africa’s B2C ecommerce market was valued at USD 7.72 billion in 2024. It grew by an estimated 9.9% in 2025 to reach USD 8.48 billion. The market is forecast to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 8.3% through 2029, reaching approximately USD 11.66 billion.
Nuvei positions this growth as a factor that makes locally optimised payment performance more important for merchants competing for South African consumers. As transaction volumes rise, the difference between domestic and cross-border processing affects a larger share of merchant revenue.
Domestic acquiring versus cross-border processing
Nuvei’s case for local acquiring rests on several operational differences from cross-border processing:
- Authorisation rates: processing transactions domestically can improve approval rates compared with cross-border acquiring.
- Costs: domestic processing can reduce processing costs.
- Visibility: merchants gain more complete insight into transaction performance.
- Fraud and friction: direct access to local transaction data supports more precise fraud management and helps businesses identify and address the sources of payment friction.
Merchants entering South Africa will be able to use these capabilities through the same Nuvei integration they already use in other markets. For businesses that currently serve South African consumers on a cross-border basis, the change allows a move to a locally processed setup. They would not need to add a separate gateway, acquiring relationship, or reporting environment.
In practice, merchants will be able to adapt their checkout to local consumer expectations. Authorisation, fraud prevention, reconciliation, and reporting would remain consolidated within one platform. This addresses a common operational burden for businesses operating across several jurisdictions: managing multiple acquiring relationships and data environments in parallel.
