{"id":639384,"date":"2026-04-09T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=639384"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:00:10","slug":"checkers-owner-gets-approval-to-buy-south-african-payments-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/banking\/639384-checkers-owner-gets-approval-to-buy-south-african-payments-company.html","title":{"rendered":"Checkers owner gets approval to buy South African payments company"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Competition Tribunal has unconditionally approved the merger between Shoprite Financial Services and R&A Cellular (RAC), which will result in Shoprite obtaining sole control of RAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shoprite Group first announced plans to acquire a majority stake in R&A Cellular<\/a> in March 2026. RAC is a point-of-sale service provider focused on the informal market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition to its retail-facing activities, RAC also supplies prepaid products on a wholesale basis to other distributors who, in turn, offer these through their own distribution networks,\u201d the Competition Tribunal stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoprite said the acquisition was a deliberate step towards extending its financial services ecosystem into South Africa\u2019s informal economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the investment reflects the company\u2019s intent to meet customers where they already live, shop and transact by expanding access to essential financial and digital services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoprite said this expansion occurs through trusted community retailers, including spaza shops and other informal merchants that play a central role in daily commerce across townships and peri\u2011urban areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained that R&A Cellular provides a widely used point\u2011of\u2011sale platform that enables informal retailers to offer various financial services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes prepaid airtime and electricity, gaming and entertainment products, as well as card\u2011based payment acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These high\u2011frequency, everyday transactions increasingly position informal retailers as convenient access points for essential services within their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis partnership marks a transformational moment for R&A Cellular,\u201d said Rui Campos, Founder and CEO of R&A Cellular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy aligning with the Shoprite Group, we are combining deep retail scale with our technology and prepaid expertise to accelerate financial inclusion and unlock greater value for traders and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoprite said it has built significant capability to deliver value\u2011added and financial services across its store network and digital channels through its Money Market offering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extending this capability beyond formal retail environments into community\u2011based trading hubs represents a natural evolution of its financial inclusion strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combining Shoprite\u2019s scale with informal-sector financial services<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cR&A Cellular has built a sound business with a strong management team and a platform that is well regarded in the market,\u201d said Jean Olivier, general manager for financial services at the Shoprite Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy combining our scale with R&A Cellular\u2019s established presence, we are creating a practical way to expand access to essential services and support the communities that rely on informal retailers every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For customers, Shoprite said the integration of its financial and value\u2011added services into the R&A Cellular ecosystem will allow people to complete more daily transactions closer to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will reduce the cost, time, and inconvenience of travelling to shopping centres or banking outlets to perform those transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For informal retailers, the platform offers access to a broader, competitive range of services that can increase customer visits, improve cash\u2011flow management, and reduce reliance on cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Shoprite said the R&A Cellular platform will strengthen the role of informal retailers as essential service providers within their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisition also builds on an existing relationship, with R&A Cellular already enabling the sale of Shoprite vouchers through its point\u2011of\u2011sale devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More photos about R&A Cellular and Shoprite<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shoprite has received approval to acquire sole control over a financial services provider focused on South Africa’s informal market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":633926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10106],"tags":[103843,69020],"class_list":["post-639384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-ra-cellular","tag-shoprite-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639395,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639384\/revisions\/639395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}