Billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s GoTyme bank tops 13m customers

GoTyme Bank, the South African digital lender backed by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, has passed 13 million customers in South Africa in its first year under a new name and plans to launch a credit card in 2027 as it pushes to become one of the country’s three biggest banks.

The Johannesburg-based bank, known as TymeBank until January, said this week that net customer loans more than doubled, rising 126% to R5.08 billion ($306 million). Customer deposits grew 27% to R9.69 billion ($584 million), and total income rose 25% to R2.72 billion ($164 million). Net interest income climbed 13% to R1.4 billion ($84 million), while fee income jumped 41%.

GoTyme now has just over 8 million customers who use their accounts every month. The bank expects to become South Africa’s third-largest bank by monthly active users in the first quarter of 2027.

“I honestly believe we will become the top three bank in the last quarter of 2026,” Chief Executive Officer Cheslyn Jacobs said at a briefing in Johannesburg.

A quarter of instant payments

The fastest growth has come in instant payments. About 26% of all PayShap payments made to cellphone numbers in South Africa now come from GoTyme accounts, the bank said. PayShap is the country’s real-time payment system, launched in March 2023 by PayInc, formerly BankservAfrica, and it lets customers send money instantly using only the recipient’s phone number.

The number of GoTyme customers using PayShap rose more than 250% from a year earlier, and almost 70% of payments made by its customers are now instant and free. The bank estimates that free instant payments save its customers more than R150 million ($9 million) a year in fees.

Jacobs has called on larger banks to drop their fees on instant payments. “We don’t want free instant payments to remain a GoTyme competitive advantage forever,” he said. “Instant should be the standard, and we believe free should be the standard, too.”

Spending on GoTyme’s virtual cards rose 240% from a year earlier, including 65% growth in the most recent quarter. More than 4 million customers have moved to the bank’s new app this year. The bank plans to have 140 customer hubs across South Africa by the end of 2026. It has removed its kiosks from Pick n Pay supermarkets and is moving into busier stores, including Boxer and TFG outlets.

Credit card next

GoTyme plans to launch a credit card in 2027, along with a revamped version of its MoreTyme buy-now-pay-later service, more personal loans through its partnership with insurer Sanlam, and a new rewards program. It also wants to offer investment products and access to digital assets, subject to regulatory approval.

Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital bought the bank from Commonwealth Bank of Australia at the end of 2018 and remains its largest shareholder, with about 40% of parent company Tyme Group. Motsepe, 64, made his fortune in mining through African Rainbow Minerals and is also president of the Confederation of African Football.

Tyme Group, which is based in Singapore, also runs GoTyme in the Philippines through a joint venture with the Gokongwei family’s JG Summit Holdings. The group has more than 21 million customers across both countries. It was valued at $1.5 billion in December 2024, when Brazilian digital bank Nubank invested $150 million for a 10% stake in a $250 million funding round. China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd. is also a shareholder.

The bank has said it is Africa’s first profitable standalone digital bank and expected a record profit for the year through June. In May, it offered shares to all of its roughly 2,000 employees and said it could be ready for a stock market listing in three to four years.

TymeBank began as a project inside Deloitte in 2012 and was bought by Commonwealth Bank of Australia two years later. It opened to customers in South Africa in 2019, selling accounts through kiosks in supermarkets and retail stores.