# Tsogatec’s digitized payments make life easier
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/success-stories/tsogatec/index.md

Success Story Tsogatec's digitized payments make life easier Mastercard partners with Tsogatec to drive financial inclusion and expand access to digital payments for underserved communities The Challenge Cash is still a popular form of payment in South Africa. It comes at a significant cost to the ratepayer and also impacts the municipalities' revenue collection rates. People with low incomes are hit the hardest, they lose about 4% of their earnings just to access and use cash, while the national average is only 1.1%. A big reason for this is that, in many instances, low-income ratepayers live far away from their local municipal offices. To pay their bills, they often have to take several taxis and wait in long lines. These low-income earners and informal family businesses remain digitally marginalized with inadequate digital payment tools to pay bills online or interact with local government services. The Solution People in Emalahleni local municipality can now get their municipal bills on WhatsApp and pay them directly from their phones.
This new service is available to over 160,000 residents and makes it much easier for people who used to travel far or stand in long lines just to pay their bills. The system was created by Mastercard and Tsogatec and works on Mastercard Gateway's secure payment platform. It lets people pay using any debit or credit card, no matter which bank they use. Even people who don't have full bank accounts, like those using SASSA cards, can now use their phones to buy electricity or pay their municipal bills safely and easily. This helps more people take part in the digital economy and makes life easier for both residents and the municipality. It also opens up new ways for people to message the municipality directly for help or services, improving communication and service delivery. Digital payments make life easier Mastercard's partnership with Tsogatec is helping South African municipalities to digitize payments It has been exciting to work with Mastercard and Emalahleni Municipality on the development and implementation of the bill payment solution," says David Gatama, Chief Executive, Tsogatec. "The collaborative efforts have resulted in a solution that resolved a number of challenges for them. There has been good uptake on the prepaid electricity purchasing side, and we are keen to roll out further capabilities on the system in July. We have helped the municipality to reduce the amount of cash it handles and made reconciliation of accounts much easier as files are automatically downloaded from the MPGS platform and uploaded into the municipality's system. David Gatama, CHIEF EXECUTIVE