MPs hear of option for Sassa to operate as a bank administering social grants
South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has mooted a long-term plan for social grants administration that may entail it operating as a bank. The proposal is for an integrated social grant administration and payment process with Sassa as a participant in the national payment system and having a special exemption under banking laws to play this role. Beneficiaries would be issued with Sassa payment cards backed up by biometric verification. The agency envisages phasing in this plan in 2019. In a presentation last week to Parliament’s social development committee, Tim Masela, head of the Reserve Bank’s national payment system department, said the Reserve Bank supported the principles of interoperability and mitigation of risk through an open architecture approach. It supported a system in which beneficiaries would select their own bank accounts to receive payments.
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