From Zero to 12 Million Customers. A Decade-Long Partnership of GoTyme Bank and BPC Drives South African Digital Adoption

WHY THIS MATTERS: The news of GoTyme Bank surpassing 12 million customers in South Africa, underpinned by its decade-long partnership with BPC, serves as a decisive blueprint for digital expansion across emerging markets. This milestone validates the power of the phygital model, demonstrating that fusing rapid digital onboarding with accessible retail-kiosk presence is the most effective route to achieving true financial inclusion. Unlike many pure-play digital banks struggling with high customer acquisition costs, GoTyme Bank’s rapid path to profitability proves that the strategy of embedding banking services directly within trusted retail ecosystems drives both scale and commercial sustainability. For fintech leaders eyeing the African continent, this case study confirms that innovative deployment of modern core banking infrastructure is non-negotiable for low-cost, high-volume operations where trust and instant physical card issuance are critical levers for mass adoption. (137 words)

GoTyme Bank (formerly TymeBank), one of Africa’s fastest-growing retail banks, and BPC, a global leader in payment solutions, are marking a decade-long partnership that has taken GoTyme Bank from the start of the project to official launch, to more than 12 million customers in South Africa.

BPC has supported GoTyme Bank’s promise of simple, transparent, affordable banking, being a key part of the journey as the bank continues to grow and achieve new milestones, which is already reflected by its listing on the TIME 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025.  

GoTyme Bank’s phygital model which combines digital with in-person service at kiosks located at retail partner outlets nationwide. Today the bank offers digital onboarding that takes less than 5 minutes, making it simple for any South African to open an account without any paperwork and walk away with a working debit card in one visit.

“Reaching 12 million customers in less than seven years underlines our belief that banking can be simple, affordable, and accessible to everyone,” said Bruce Paveley – CTO: GoTyme Bank in South Africa. “Choosing BPC at the start of this long journey was the right decision. BPC’s SmartVista platform and expert support from their team helped us launch fast, giving us the tools to issue debit cards instantly and to keep innovating. Together, we’ll continue delivering new, innovative payment tools and payment experiences for South Africans. Be it online, in-app, or at kiosks across the country.”

From day one, GoTyme Bank (former TymeBank) sought a partner that was able to build a bank from the ground up and meet all South African regulatory and scheme requirements. BPC delivered SmartVista issuing, tightly integrated with kiosks and digital channels. Beyond technology, BPC’s supported with certification with international schemes, card manufacturing, transaction flow design and end-to-end operational readiness thereby accelerating time-to-market. Leveraging SmartVista’s platform modularity and open APIs have granted rapid feature rollout and lower operational costs to the bank.

From the start of its operations GoTyme Bank showed explosive growth, reaching 50,000 customers within two months of launch, surpassing 1 million in its first year, 3.5 million by year two, onboarding over 6 million by year three, and now serves more than 12 million customers, becoming Africa’s first profitable digital bank in under five years. Recently, GoTyme Bank has also entered Brand Finance’s South Africa Top 50, with a brand value of R3 billion, ranking highly for value, transparency, fairness, ease of use, and simplicity.

FF NEWS TAKE: This partnership definitively moves the needle, proving that profitability and mass scale are achievable in African digital banking via strategic retail alliances. The success of the “phygital” approach forces a re-evaluation of pure-play models globally, especially in emerging economies. The next crucial phase is leveraging this enormous customer base for product penetration. We must now watch for the bank’s planned geographic expansion under the Tyme Group umbrella into markets like Vietnam and Indonesia, and its ability to seamlessly integrate advanced lending and wealth products. 

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