Nedbank announced on 2 December 2025 that it had completed the acquisition of iKhokha, a South African fintech specialising in payments solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, for a consideration of R1.65 billion — approximately USD 94 million at prevailing exchange rates. All required regulatory approvals were received prior to closing, and iKhokha now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nedbank group. The completion was confirmed through a press release published on Nedbank's corporate website on the same date.
The acquisition marks a meaningful expansion of Nedbank's capabilities in the SME banking segment, a market the bank has identified as a strategic growth area within its broader commercial and business banking franchise. By acquiring iKhokha outright, Nedbank gains ownership of an established payments platform built specifically for smaller business customers — a demographic that has historically been underserved by the full-service banking infrastructure offered by South Africa's large incumbent lenders and that has increasingly turned to fintech-native solutions for card acceptance and payment processing.
IKHOKHA ADDS PAYMENTS SCALE TO NEDBANK'S SME OFFERING
iKhokha built its market position by offering mobile-first, affordable card acceptance and payment-processing solutions to merchants and small businesses that found traditional point-of-sale infrastructure prohibitively expensive or administratively complex. Its technology stack and merchant network give Nedbank direct access to SME payment flows at meaningful scale, complementing the lending, transactional banking, and business savings products the bank already offers through its commercial and retail banking channels.
Integrating iKhokha as a wholly owned subsidiary — rather than forcing an immediate full merger of systems — preserves operational continuity for iKhokha's merchant customers during the transition period and allows the business to retain the agility that underpinned its growth as an independent fintech. At the same time, the structure gives Nedbank the strategic control it requires over the direction of the business, enabling it to align iKhokha's product roadmap with its wider SME banking strategy and to offer the fintech's capabilities through Nedbank's distribution infrastructure over time.
REGULATORY APPROVALS CLEAR PATH TO CLOSE
South African bank acquisitions of this type require approval from the Prudential Authority within the South African Reserve Bank, and transactions of a scale that may affect market competition also require clearance from the Competition Tribunal. The receipt of all necessary approvals prior to the 2 December 2025 closing date reflects a clean regulatory passage and confirms that the relevant authorities were satisfied that the transaction did not raise substantive prudential or competition concerns that would warrant conditions or delay.
The R1.65 billion consideration — equivalent to roughly USD 94 million — reflects both iKhokha's revenue-generating track record and its strategic value to a large banking group seeking to accelerate its digital payments capabilities in the SME segment. South Africa's SME sector has attracted growing fintech investment in recent years as smartphone penetration increases and the cost of mobile payment infrastructure falls, creating commercially attractive conditions for solutions that target the mass market of small merchants. Nedbank's acquisition positions it to compete more directly with both specialist fintech providers and other banks that have been investing in digital SME payments capabilities across the South African market.