the sadc rtgs system, formerly known as siress, was developed as a catalyst to support the regional financial integration agenda towards the realisation of sadc ’ s aim of facilitating trade and investment in the region. prior to the implementation of the 1 international standards organization page 3 of 10 sadc rtgs system, regional cross - border transactions were settled via correspondent banking arrangements, which are prone to counterparty risk, lags in the settlement of these transactions on a t + 1 or t + 2 basis, and short cut - off times. the system was implemented through a public - private partnership between central banks and the commercial banking industry. the role that other partners played in the project – partners like the finmark trust, the european union, the world bank, the bill and melinda gates foundation, and the international monetary fund ( imf ) – is also appreciated and valued. the system currently settles transactions for 82 participating banks drawn from 14 countries across the sadc region. since july 2013, it has settled over 1. 2 million cross - border transactions and a cumulative peak value of r5 trillion, which was reached in october 2018. a project is currently underway to replace the sadc rtgs platform with a solution based on modern technology, which will provide, among other things, multi - currency capabilities, flexible settlement windows per currency, and re - engineered business processes to support the possible future business needs that could utilise distributed ledger technology ( dlt ). vision 2025 it is imperative that we continue to build on our legacy in our quest to enhance the safety, efficiency and accessibility of the nps in a manner that promotes competition and minimises risk to the payments ecosystem. as outlined in vision 2025, we will pursue this objective by leveraging technological developments to extend the availability of digital payment services to all sectors of society while meeting domestic, regional and international requirements for the benefit of all members of south african society. the nps affects the lives of all south africans. essentially, it exists to serve the economy and, through it, the people of south africa. it is a crucial enabling factor for page 4 of 10 economic activity among consumers and businesses. payment systems can, for example, enable seamless links to public transportation. a recent study by visa titled the cashless cities : realising the benefits of digital payments 2 reveals that, should johannesburg reach a state where 100 % of transactions are digital, the city would gain just under us $ 500 million in net benefits cumulative

##ly for consumers, business and government per year. the study further suggests four main long - term benefits over the next 15 years : an increase in employment, an increase in the gross domestic product ( gdp ), and marginal increases in wages and productivity. the emergence of fintech, the fourth industrial revolution and the continuing shift from the industrial to the digital economy all hold significant benefits and could materially contribute towards lifting the growth potential of our economy. i would like to demonstrate this by referring to examples of other countries that have not only embraced technology, but that are reaping the fruits from their foresight. the potential of fintech according to financial sector deepening africa, a development finance organisation, fintech is expected to contribute at least us $ 40 - 150 billion 3 to sub - saharan africa ’ s economic output by 2022. in a similar vein, accenture ’ s pivoting with ai report 4 states that embracing artificial intelligence, in - process automation and augmenting human capabilities could potentially double the size of south africa ’ s economy in a few decades. however, the most compelling evidence for the potential of fintech comes from some small countries in europe and many from the east. the digital revolution has increased the growth potential in these countries. 2 compiled by evidence - based economics research firm roubini thoughtlab based on 2016 data and published in 2018 3 https : / / techcentral. co. za / fintech - seen - adding - 150 - billion - to - africas - gdp / 83628 / 4 https : / / www. accenture. com / za - en / _ acnmedia / pdf - 85 / accenture - pivoting - with - ai - pov - brochure. pdf # zoom = 50 page 5 of 10 estonia a country leading the charge in embracing fintech and setting the pace towards the digital economy is estonia. it is a small country, with minimal natural resources. in 2018, there are only three things you cannot do online : get married, get divorced, and buy real estate. everything else largely happens digitally. estonia has introduced e - identity, digital signatures, e - residency and i - voting. the estonian entrepreneurship growth strategy 2020 outlines the strategy for the estonian economy for the next seven years, focusing on three main challenges in order to increase the wealth of estonia : increasing productivity, stimulating entrepreneurship, and encouraging innovation. allow me to quote some resounding statistics marking the success of some of