Leveraging FinTech to Combat Protection Fees in Township Economies: Advancing Sustainable Economic Resilience Through Digital Payment Solutions

Criminal extortion and protection fees have emerged as significant threats to the sustainability of township businesses in South Africa, undermining entrepreneurship, formalisation, investment, and local economic development. This study examines how FinTech and complementary digital technologies may reduce the vulnerabilities associated with cash-based transactions while supporting longer-term economic resilience. It presents a qualitative systematic literature review of evidence published between 2016 and 2026, drawn from Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and supplemented by AI-assisted searching. The search yielded 8704 records, of which 114 were assessed in full-text and 48 were included in the final synthesis. The findings indicate that mobile money, digital payments, and blockchain-enabled systems may reduce cash dependency, improve transaction transparency and security, and strengthen financial participation. Complementary digital reporting and community platforms may further support collective responses to extortion. The review also identified a potential longer-term pathway from digital transaction records to greater financial visibility and formal financial participation; however, digital adoption does not automatically produce access to credit or eliminate extortion. Diffusion of innovation theory is used to explain how relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability shape adoption. The study contributes to a governance-oriented FinTech framework in which digital payment adoption is understood as both a financial inclusion mechanism and a potential risk-reduction and formalisation pathway that could influence the sustainability of businesses. Its effectiveness depends on digital literacy, affordable infrastructure, institutional trust, enabling regulation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.