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Table of contents What is the SASSA SRD R370 grant? SASSA SRD R370 payment dates for May 2026 How to check your SRD payment status What to do if your application is declined Common reasons for payment delays and how to fix them If you receive the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) Social Relief of Distress (SRD) R370 ($22.59) grant, you already know that your payment does not arrive on the same day as the older persons or disability grants. The SRD runs on its own schedule, and May 2026 is no different. SASSA has confirmed that SRD payments for May 2026 will be processed between Saturday, May 24 and Saturday, May 30, 2026. Since SASSA only processes payments on business days, most beneficiaries will see their money between Monday, May 25 and Friday, May 29. Your personal payment date within that window depends on when your monthly verification clears. The quickest way to find your exact date is to log into srd.sassa.gov.za with your South African ID number and the cellphone number you used when you applied. What is the SASSA SRD R370 grant? The SRD grant is a monthly cash payment from SASSA for unemployed people who have no other source of income or government support. It pays R370($22.59) every month and is the last in the payment queue, always processed after all permanent grants have gone out. Unlike grants such as the Older Persons or Child Support Grant, the SRD does not have a permanent approval. SASSA reassesses every application each month against government databases before releasing any payment. This is why your payment date is different from your neighbour’s, and why the same person can be approved one month and declined the next. To qualify for the SRD R370 grant, you must: Be a South African citizen, permanent resident, refugee, or asylum seeker with a valid Section 22 permit Be between 18 and 59 years old Have no income above R624($38.09) monthly in any bank account linked to your ID Not be receiving any other SASSA grant, UIF payments, or NSFAS funding Not be living in a state-funded institution such as a prison or care facility A single deposit that pushes your account balance above R624 ($38.09) in a given month, even from a family member or a refund, can trigger an automatic decline for that month. This is one of the most common reasons people get declined, even when they have no regular income. The SRD grant was first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been extended several times since. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed in the November 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) that the grant will run until March 31, 2027, and is backed by an additional R36.4 billion($2.22 billion) in Treasury allocation. The government has signalled it may be replaced by a more permanent income-support arrangement after March 2027, but no final design has been published yet. SASSA SRD R370 payment dates for May 2026 SASSA confirmed the May 2026 SRD payment window as May 24 to May 30, 2026. The table below shows the full payment schedule for all grants this month. Since May 24 is a Sunday and May 30 is a Saturday, actual processing will happen on business days within that range. SASSA does not process payments on weekends, so plan around Monday, May 25, through Friday, May 29. Your personal date within that window depends on when your monthly means test clears. SASSA cross-checks your application against records from SARS, UIF, Home Affairs, NSFAS, and your bank before assigning your payment day. Once that check is complete, your date will appear on your status page at srd.sassa.gov.za. Banks and retailers also process at different speeds. If your payment shows as released by SASSA, allow one to three business days for it to reflect in your account, depending on your bank or payment channel. How to check your SRD payment status There are four ways to check your status. The online portal is the most reliable because it shows your month-by-month history and your personal payment date once assigned. Option 1: Online at srd.sassa.gov.za (most reliable) Open a browser and go to srd.sassa.gov.za. Make sure the address ends in .gov.za. Click “Check Your Status” or “Application Status.” Enter your 13-digit South African ID number. Enter the cellphone number you used when you applied. Submit. Your month-by-month result and, where available, your personal payment date will appear. Option 2: WhatsApp at 082 046 8553 Save 082 046 8553 as a contact and open WhatsApp. Send “Hi” or “Status” to start the chat. Follow the menu prompts and enter your ID number when asked. The chatbot will return your current grant status. Option 3: USSD by dialling *120*3210# (no data needed) Dial *120*3210# from any cellphone. Select “SASSA R370 Status” or “Status Check” from the menu. Enter your ID number. Your status will appear on screen. If *120*3210# fails, try the legacy code *134*7737#. Option 4: Toll-free call centre at 0800 60 10 11 Available Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 16:00. Have your ID number and your registered cellphone number ready before you call. An agent will read your latest status aloud. What your status result means What to do if your application is declined A declined status does not always mean the end of the road. SASSA gives you 90 days from the date of the decline to request a reconsideration. This process is free, and you do not need a lawyer. The most common reasons SASSA declines SRD applications are: A bank deposit pushed your account above R624 ($38.09) in the assessed month, even if it was a once-off transfer from a family member or a refund UIF payments or an active UIF registration were detected NSFAS funding was found linked to your ID Your identity details do not match what Home Affairs has on record You were found to be receiving another SASSA grant Your age is recorded as being outside the 18 to 59
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Olayinka Oke has travelled to 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states, exploring her nomadic curiosities from humble beginnings before she began branching out of the country and, eventually, Africa. Before Ghana, Malta, Sierra Leone, and Kenya, there were shorter trips across Nigeria. She would wait for a public holiday, take two extra leave days, book a hotel or Airbnb, and disappear for four days. Sometimes, it was a quick weekend stop in Ekiti, in southwestern Nigeria. Other times, Kano, in the far north. At the time, international travel still felt distant for Oke. But in 2017, she crossed Nigeria’s borders for Accra, Ghana, for the first time. That trip changed something. “Even though Ghana is a lot similar to Nigeria, there was—I don’t know the word for it—but my eyes just opened to the fact that there’s actually a lot more to life than the country where you live,” said Oke. Now, she saves a little over ₦500,000 ($368) every month into a travel fund to finance the frequent travel lifestyle she describes as requiring “meticulous planning.” In March, she was in Kenya for the month, working remotely from different high‑brow parts of Nairobi and taking a side trip to Lamu, off Kenya’s coast. Later this year, she plans to visit several European countries and at least one Asian country, preferably Thailand, she said. Oke, a chemical engineering graduate from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, leads data management and governance at Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), one of the country’s biggest gas producers. She said her urge to travel came from a restless dislike for routine and a desire to keep experiencing new places instead of staying in one environment long enough to get bored. “There’s always the point of wanting to be in a saner clime,” Oke said. “Every time you run into a low‑quality problem in Nigeria, you tell yourself that, ‘if I were living outside Nigeria, this wouldn’t be a problem.’” Her full‑time job is based in Nigeria, but over the last few years, she has steadily built a life that assumes she will live in at least three other countries every year, one month at a time. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events Next wave Entering Tech Subscribe Oke, the traveller Oke first worked in the oil and gas sector, including a stint at Halliburton, the multinational oilfield services firm with operations in Nigeria, between 2014 and 2016. She then moved into banking as a data professional at tier-2 lender, Union Bank, from 2016 to 2021, before transitioning fully into the energy side of data, first at Easy Solar and now at NLNG. Oke traces her deliberate nomadic life to two moments: that first Ghana trip and later, a job that pushed her to move to Sierra Leone. For a while, the change showed up mainly as tourism. She travelled when she could afford it, mostly for short stays. The shift from tourist to temporary resident came in 2022, when she got an offer from Easy Solar. The company sells renewable energy products to last‑mile users on a pay‑as‑you‑go (PAYG) basis in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She said she started as a commercial data analyst, working remotely at first, but the role came with a condition: at some point, she would have to move to Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. “I eventually moved to Sierra Leone in 2023,” she said. “Sierra Leone is not like Europe, which is a lot more developed; in fact, I would say Sierra Leone is a bit less developed than Nigeria, but the way things were just different was very interesting to me.” Oke poses for a photo at the ‘I Love Salone’ sign in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Image Source: Olayinka Oke While she spent about a year in Sierra Leone, the stay was long enough for daily details to matter more than the idea of “moving abroad.” The first shock came from housing and groceries. Rents in the parts of Freetown where expatriates and professionals clustered were quoted in dollars, and her two‑bedroom apartment, shared with a flatmate, cost about $600 a month. Groceries, too, were often more expensive than she expected, partly because many products were imported, she said. Food and convenience became the biggest pressure points. In Lagos, Oke prefers to order almost everything online and can go weeks without leaving her house when working remotely. Oke hiking the Leicester Peak, a mountain in Sierra Leone’s Western area. Image Source: Olayinka Oke In Freetown, that setup simply did not exist. There were restaurants with Instagram pages, but no central food‑delivery platforms, she said. She had to ask colleagues how people managed. Eventually, she settled into the local workaround: finding a trusted bike rider who acted as a personal dispatch, buying items from different places, and bringing them over. The Malta cameo, sacrifice, and returning home In the middle of her Sierra Leone stint in 2023, she applied on LinkedIn for a data analyst role at a Malta-based gaming company. She got the offer while she was still with Easy Solar, and kept working for the company as the Malta process moved ahead. Oke left Sierra Leone around June and returned to Lagos, continuing to work remotely for Easy Solar until it was time to travel. In September, she flew to Malta to start the in‑country stages of her new role. She said the gaming company sponsored her visa, paid for her flight, and put her
Read MoreNigeria is now Airtel Africa’s second-biggest market by revenue earned from each subscriber, as higher telecom tariffs boosted earnings in the company’s largest African market. Airtel Africa, which operates in 14 countries, grew its average revenue per user (ARPU) in Nigeria by 41.18% for the financial year ended March 2026, according to the company’s financial results released on Friday. ARPU measures how much telecom operators earn per subscriber and is a key indicator of whether revenue is sufficient to cover operating costs and fund network investments. Money The ARPU Gap: Value vs. Velocity Francophone Africa still extracts the most revenue per user, but Nigeria’s recent 50% tariff hike has triggered explosive year-over-year growth. Source: Airtel Africa plc FY’26 Financial Results. Bar length represents actual Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). Badges represent YoY growth.
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