Payments glossary
EFT (electronic funds transfer)
EFT (electronic funds transfer) is the electronic movement of money between bank accounts. In South Africa, traditional EFTs clear in batches through BankservAfrica and commonly take one to three business days to reflect - the delay that Instant EFT and PayShap were built to remove.
How a traditional EFT clears
When a customer captures an EFT in their banking app, the payment does not travel alone. Their bank gathers payments into batches, exchanges them with other banks through BankservAfrica - the automated clearing house - and the banks settle the net positions between themselves at the SARB. The recipient only sees the money once their own bank has processed the incoming batch, which commonly takes one to three business days, and only on business days.
Why plain EFT struggles at checkout
An online order paid by ordinary EFT sits in limbo. The merchant either waits days for funds to reflect before shipping, or releases goods against a proof-of-payment screenshot - a document fraudsters routinely forge. Reconciliation is manual work too, because customers mistype references and payments arrive without context. This gap is precisely what Instant EFT (immediate, provider-verified confirmation of a bank-approved payment) and PayShap (real-time clearing, around the clock) were created to close.
Where EFT still fits
EFT remains the workhorse for invoicing, B2B trade, payroll and supplier payments - anywhere a day's delay is acceptable and per-payment cost matters more than speed. For checkout, LekkaPay offers Instant EFT live through Ozow in South Africa and NIBSS in Nigeria - see Instant EFT.
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