The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of global life, and the payment industry has not been spared. Yet amid the disruption, one trend has accelerated with remarkable speed: the adoption of contactless payment technology. What was a gradual evolution has become an urgent transformation, driven by public health concerns about the transmission of the virus through physical contact with shared surfaces — including payment terminals, cash, and cards.
The Hygiene Imperative
In the early weeks of the pandemic, as South Africa entered its national lockdown in March 2020, public health messaging emphasised the importance of reducing physical contact. The World Health Organisation, while noting that the risk of virus transmission through surfaces was lower than through respiratory droplets, acknowledged that minimising contact with shared surfaces was a sensible precaution. In the payment context, this meant avoiding the handling of cash, the touching of PIN pads, and the insertion of cards into reader slots.
Contactless payment — tapping rather than inserting a card, with no need to touch a PIN pad for transactions below the floor limit — suddenly became not just a convenience but a public health measure. Consumer awareness of contactless technology, which had been growing gradually, spiked dramatically. Surveys conducted during the pandemic period consistently showed that 70 to 80 per cent of consumers expressed a preference for contactless payment over cash or contact-based card transactions.
Raised Contactless Limits
One of the most significant industry responses to the pandemic was the raising of contactless transaction floor limits — the maximum transaction value for which a tap payment can be processed without requiring a PIN. In South Africa, Visa raised its contactless floor limit from R200 to R500, and Mastercard followed with similar increases. These higher limits meant that a much larger proportion of everyday transactions — groceries, fuel, restaurant meals — could be completed with a simple tap, without any physical contact with the terminal.
The impact on transaction volumes was immediate and dramatic. Banks reported contactless transaction volumes increasing by 50 to 100 per cent within weeks of the limit increase. For many consumers, the pandemic period was the first time they used the contactless capability of a card they had been carrying for months or years without knowing it was tap-enabled.
Impact on Card Issuance
The pandemic accelerated the transition from contact-only to dual-interface card issuance. Banks that had been planning gradual rollouts of contactless-enabled cards brought forward their timelines, recognising that consumer demand for tap-to-pay had shifted from "nice to have" to "essential." For card manufacturers, this created a surge in demand for dual-interface cards and a corresponding decline in orders for contact-only specifications.
The acceleration was not limited to banking cards. Retail loyalty programmes fast-tracked the addition of NFC capability to their cards, enabling contactless identification at checkout without the need for physical card handling. Hotel chains accelerated their adoption of RFID key cards, promoting the "touch-free" nature of tap-to-enter room access as a guest safety feature.
Supply Chain Challenges
The pandemic simultaneously increased demand for contactless cards and disrupted the global supply chains that produce them. Factory closures across Asia during the early weeks of the outbreak, followed by lockdowns in Europe and the Americas, created bottlenecks in chip supply, card body manufacturing, and international logistics. Shipping containers that previously moved predictably along established trade routes were stranded at ports, creating delays and cost increases that rippled through the entire supply chain.
Cardzgroup's production facilities in Asia experienced these disruptions firsthand. Early and aggressive pandemic responses meant that operations were among the first to shut down and, fortunately, among the first to resume. By implementing strict health protocols — temperature screening, mask mandates, social distancing on production lines, and deep-cleaning regimes — full production capacity was restored while maintaining the safety of the workforce.
The experience reinforced the importance of supply chain resilience and the value of maintaining strong relationships with chip suppliers and logistics partners. Clients who had diversified their card manufacturing across multiple suppliers were better positioned to weather the disruptions than those relying on a single source.
The Cash Debate
The pandemic reignited the long-running debate about the future of cash in Africa. While digital payment advocates pointed to the hygiene risks of physical cash, cash advocates noted that digital-only payment systems exclude the millions of Africans without bank accounts or electronic payment instruments. South Africa's Reserve Bank was careful to emphasise that cash remained legal tender and that businesses should not refuse cash payments — a position supported by the reality that roughly 40 per cent of South African adults rely primarily on cash for daily transactions.
The balanced view — that cash and electronic payments will coexist, with the balance gradually shifting towards electronic as infrastructure and inclusion improve — seems the most realistic assessment. Contactless cards sit at the centre of this transition, offering a familiar physical form factor with the hygiene and efficiency advantages of electronic payment.
A Permanent Shift
As South Africa and the continent emerge from the acute phase of the pandemic, the behavioural shift towards contactless payment shows no signs of reversing. Consumers who adopted tap-to-pay during the pandemic have overwhelmingly continued to prefer it — the combination of speed, convenience, and perceived hygiene has created a new baseline of expectation. For the card industry, this permanent shift means that contactless capability is no longer a premium feature but a standard requirement for any new card issuance.