Visa Launches 'tap To Add Card' In South Africa

"Tap to Add Card eliminates the cumbersome process of manual entry, a common source of errors and a vulnerability exploited by fraudsters seeking to compromise sensitive card information," Visa said in a statement on Tuesday about the launch of the new feature in the local market.

"The tap generates a unique, one-time code validated by Visa's Chip Authenticate service, ensuring secure provisioning of card credentials and offering a significantly faster and more secure alternative to traditional methods," it said.

Tap-to-pay solutions have become popular in South Africa. They took off during the Covid pandemic, when consumers were worried about contracting the coronavirus from point-of-sale terminals. The convenience factor has kept many of them using the technology ever since.

Visa South Africa head Lineshree Moodley said Tap to Add Card will help drive further adoption of digital wallets in South Africa by "addressing key security concerns and simplifying the user experience".