Uber has just launched cash payments in Lagos, Nigeria making it the third city in Africa to offer this option.

With South Africa also being among the company’s top African customer base, will we see cash payments coming our way too?

Cash payments are currently also available in Cairo and Nairobi, but Uber South Africa has told htxt.africa there are no plans to add any local city to that list.

“Our current focus for this experiment is Lagos. Our objective is to really learn more here first and potentially look to take cash payments to more cities in Africa,” Uber’s Samantha Allenberg told us.

Allenberg said, however, that the option of introducing cash payments to other international markets is not off the cards..

These markets include the likes of Latin America, India and South-East Asia where cash is still the most ubiquitous method of payment. These are the regions where Uber will be focusing on launching more cash payment experiments in future.

“It really is dependent on specific market requirements,” Allenberg said.

The closest South African customers can come to using cash for an Uber is through VC Pay, which allows you to pre-load a certain amount of cash onto a Mobile Virtual MasterCard and use it as once-off or recurring payment option for trips.

[Image – CC Steven Tan]