Grace Ashiru
South Africa’s corporate payments infrastructure just got a significant upgrade. Visa Commercial Pay (VCP), a new integrated business-to-business payments platform, has launched in South Africa, designed to simplify how organisations manage supplier payments, corporate travel, and operational spend.
The platform enables secure virtual card issuance, automates reconciliation, and provides visibility into spending patterns through a centralised interface. It was brought to market through a partnership between Visa, First National Bank (FNB), and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB).
The launch lands at a commercially relevant moment. South Africa’s digital payments market is estimated at approximately $10 billion, driven by growth in mobile and online payments and a broader shift toward cashless transactions. Yet, according to Visa, many businesses continue to rely on fragmented, manual processes that cap their efficiency, limit spend controls, and reduce financial visibility.
Lineshree Moodley, Visa’s South Africa country head, described the platform as bringing “payments, control, and insights into one seamless experience,” enabling smarter business decisions and the ability to unlock working capital. Senzo Nsibande, CEO of FNB Core Banking, Retail and Business Banking, said the product digitises and optimises payment processes by reducing administrative complexity and improving spend visibility for business clients.
RMB’s product head for corporate card issuing, Reeza Hartley, emphasised the platform’s governance value for corporate travel — noting it gives finance teams stronger controls and the data needed to make faster decisions.
For the broader African market, the South Africa launch is a reference case. VCP represents the kind of enterprise payment infrastructure that has long existed for corporates in mature markets, now being deployed locally with the backing of institutions that understand the domestic operating environment.
