Binance Bolsters South Africa's Smart City Payment Infrastructure

Binance is playing a crucial role in building the payment layer beneath South Africa's smart cities. Hannes Wessels, General Manager of South Africa at Binance, emphasized that for a city to be truly 'smart', it needs reliable and low-cost ways to move money within and across borders.

The company is tackling three main barriers to widespread adoption of digital finance: understanding, getting started, and the cost of entry. To address these issues, Binance has developed tools like Binance Academy, which provides free resources for learning about crypto, as well as a simple identity check process that takes minutes rather than days.

Binance Pay is another key innovation, allowing users to make payments with just a QR code scan and settling exchanges in real-time using stablecoins. This approach keeps prices stable and ensures merchants are paid directly in rands with no additional fees.