How does an Ozow payment work?
The payment starts on the merchant’s server. When the shopper reaches checkout, the merchant’s backend creates a payment request with Ozow and receives a payment URL. The shopper is then sent to the Ozow payment page, or sees it embedded in the merchant’s own page, and returns to the merchant’s site afterwards. Amounts are in rand.
For Pay by Bank, the shopper chooses their bank, signs in to online banking and selects the account to pay from. The bank then asks for approval, usually with a one-time PIN sent to the shopper’s phone or email, or a prompt in the banking app. Ozow pre-fills the merchant’s account details, reference and amount, so the shopper does not type them. Ozow lists Capitec Pay, Absa Pay, Nedbank Direct EFT, FNB/RMB Payment Request, Standard Bank, Investec and Bidvest Bank among its pay-by-bank options, and says a pay-by-bank payment is irrevocable once confirmed.
The result arrives by webhook. Ozow calls the merchant’s notification URL with the final status, and its documentation is explicit that a shopper landing on the success page is not proof of payment. Only the Complete status means the payment succeeded. Other final statuses are Cancelled, Abandoned, Voided and Error. FNB pay-by-bank payments can sit in Pending while Ozow verifies them, and a few end in PendingInvestigation, where the merchant checks its own statement.
Money then moves in two steps. Pay-ins reach Ozow first and are settled to the merchant’s bank account on a schedule that depends on the method, with separate settlement statuses for reconciliation. Refunds and payouts are paid from a float, a balance the merchant funds in advance.
Why does Ozow matter for merchants?
It reaches shoppers who would rather not use a card. Most South African adults have a bank account, and Ozow lets them pay from it without a card. One integration covers many banks, and Ozow can also switch on other methods for the same payment page, including Visa and Mastercard cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, PayShap Request, cash vouchers and Capitec Pay recurring payments.
It avoids card fraud exposure. SABRIC reported R780.5 million of card-not-present fraud losses on South African issued cards in 2025. A pay-by-bank payment is approved by the shopper’s own bank and is not a card payment, so there is no card-scheme chargeback.
It covers money out as well as money in. Ozow refunds go back through the original method, in full or in several partial amounts, either by real-time clearing or by standard EFT in one to three business days. Bank payouts send money to a South African bank account from the merchant’s own system, after Ozow approval and staging tests.
What can go wrong?
Most failed payments stop at the bank step. The shopper forgets an online banking password, misses the one-time PIN or closes the page, and the payment ends as Abandoned or Cancelled. Voided payments, which happen when a shopper switches bank part-way, send no notification, so merchants need to poll for them.
Refunds have limits. By default a refund must be made within 14 days of the original payment, which Ozow can extend to up to 360 days on request. Only completed payments can be refunded, the amount cannot exceed the float balance, and a second refund should not be sent until the first has completed or failed, or the shopper may be paid twice.
Payouts need careful handling. A payout request returns status 1, meaning received and queued, not paid. Ozow calls a verification webhook before processing, and the account number must be encrypted per request. If no notification arrives within a few minutes, the merchant should query the payout status rather than send it again.
How would Omno handle Ozow?
A merchant would show Ozow in the hosted checkout or offer it through Direct Links on its own checkout. Routing rules would send the payment to a provider that holds an Ozow connection. In the hosted checkout, if that provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment would cascade to the next provider in the rule until one accepts, before the shopper is redirected. Pending payments would be tracked until Ozow reports a final status, and the result would reach the merchant by webhook, which is the source of truth for confirming an order. Payouts would go through a provider that supports them, with a unique reference on each one, and the routing-decision log would record which provider handled each step.