South Africa

Send ZAR directly to bank accounts in South Africa. This guide walks you through the steps required to initiate and verify a transfer.

Prerequisites

Complete KYC and ensure your account is approved for transactions.
Whitelist your server IP addresses. See this guide for more information.
Enable Transfers via API. See this guide for more information.
Ensure you have sufficient funds in the ZAR wallet. For cross-currency transfers, the transfer amount is debited from the debit_currency wallet, while the transfer fee is debited from the ZAR wallet. See the supported currencies and transfer fees page for more information.

Payout Flow

Follow these steps to send money to a bank account in South Africa.

Collect the beneficiary details
Gather the beneficiary's name, bank, and account number.

See the table below for the required and optional parameters.

Parameter	Description	Format	Example	Is required
`account_bank`	The beneficiary's bank code. Use the Get Banks endpoint to retrieve the bank code.	String	"Nedbank"	Yes
`account_number`	The beneficiary's account number.	String	"1080621210"	Yes
`beneficiary_name`	The beneficiary's full name.	String	"Thabo Dlamini"	Yes
`amount`	The amount to send.	Integer	1000	Yes
`currency`	The transfer currency. Must be `ZAR`.	String	"ZAR"	Yes
`debit_currency`	The wallet currency to debit for the transfer.	String	"XAF"	No
`narration`	A description for the transfer.	String	"South Africa Withdrawal"	No
`reference`	Unique reference to identify the transfer.	String	"Your-Unique-Reference"	No
`meta[0].first_name`	The beneficiary’s first name. If passed, must match the first name value provided for the `beneficiary_name`.	String	"Thabo"	No
`meta[0].last_name`	The beneficiary’s last name. If passed, must match the last name value provided for the `beneficiary_name`.	String	"Dlamini"	No
`meta[0].email`	The beneficiary’s email address.	String	“[email protected]”	Yes
`meta[0].recipient_address`	The beneficiary’s address.	String	"Cape Town South Africa"	Yes
`meta[0].mobile_number`	The beneficiary’s mobile number.	String	"+27830000000"	Yes

Initiate the transfer
Send a POST request to the transfer endpoint with the beneficiary and transfer details.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.flutterwave.com/v3/transfers \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer {{YOUR_SECRET_KEY}}' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
        "amount": 1000,
        "account_bank": "Nedbank",
        "account_number": "1080621210",
        "currency": "ZAR",
        "debit_currency": "XAF",
        "beneficiary_name":"Nelson Nelson",
        "narration": "South Africa withdrawal",      
        "reference": "STk_kfndl_PMCKDU_1",
        "meta":[
      {
        "first_name": "Nelson",
        "last_name": "Nelson",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "mobile_number": "+27830000000",
        "recipient_address": "Johannesburg South Africa"     
      }
        ]	
  }'

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 2242314,
        "account_number": "1080621210",
        "bank_code": "Nedbank",
        "full_name": "Nelson Nelson",
        "created_at": "2026-09-22T13:22:14.000Z",
        "currency": "ZAR",
        "debit_currency": "XAF",
        "amount": 1000,
        "fee": 45,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "STk_kfndl_PMCKDU_1",
        "meta": [
            {
                "FirstName": "Nelson",
                "LastName": "Nelson",
                "EmailAddress": "[email protected]",
                "MobileNumber": "+27830000000",
                "Address": "Johannesburg South Africa",
                "MerchantName": "Dotuns Fashion Limited",
                "SenderCountry": "ZA",
                "SenderAddress": "138 West Street, Sandown, Sandton, JHB",
                "AccountNumber": "1080621210",
                "RoutingNumber": "Nedbank",
                "Sender": "Dotuns Fashion Limited"
            }
        ],
        "narration": "South Africa withdrawal",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "Nedbank Limited"
    }
}

Verify the transfer status
There are two ways to verify the transfer status:

Call the transfer status endpoint using the transfer ID (data.id) returned in the transfer response.

curl --request GET \
  --location 'https://api.flutterwave.com/v3/transfers/2242314' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer {{YOUR_SECRET_KEY}}'

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer fetched",
    "data": {
        "id": 2242314,
        "account_number": "1080621210",
        "bank_code": "Nedbank",
        "full_name": "Nelson Nelson",
        "created_at": "2026-09-22T13:22:14.000Z",
        "currency": "ZAR",
        "debit_currency": "XAF",
        "amount": 1000,
        "fee": 45,
        "status": "SUCCESSFUL",
        "reference": "STk_kfndl_PMCKDU_1",
        "meta": [
            {
                "first_name": "Nelson",
                "last_name": "Nelson",
                "email": "[email protected]",
                "mobile_number": "+27830000000",
                "account_number": "1080621210",
                "routing_number": "Nedbank",
                "sender": "Dotuns Fashion Limited"
            }
        ],
        "narration": "South Africa withdrawal",
        "approver": null,
        "complete_message": "Successful",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "Nedbank Limited"
    }
}

Listen for webhooks. Configure your webhook URL on the Flutterwave Dashboard to receive real-time transfer updates. See the webhooks guide for more information.

{
  "event": "transfer.completed",
  "event.type": "Transfer",
  "data": {
    "id": 2242314,
    "account_number": "1080621210",
    "bank_name": "Nedbank Limited",
    "bank_code": "Nedbank",
    "fullname": "Nelson Nelson",
    "created_at": "2026-09-22T13:22:14.000Z",
    "currency": "ZAR",
    "debit_currency": "XAF",
    "amount": 1000,
    "fee": 45,
    "status": "SUCCESSFUL",
    "reference": "STk_kfndl_PMCKDU_1",
    "meta": [
      {
        "first_name": "Nelson",
        "last_name": "Nelson",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "mobile_number": "+27830000000",
        "sender": "Dotuns Fashion Limited"
      }
    ],
    "narration": "South Africa withdrawal",
    "approver": null,
    "complete_message": "Successful",
    "requires_approval": 0,
    "is_approved": 1
  }
}

Testing Transfers

Check the testing guide for mocking transfers in the test environment.