Payment Gateways

Merchants/sellers are now pushing for access to their services/products, to be more easily accessible beyond the physical limits of their shops/offices. Hence, the need for secure, safe, reliable, and easy to use Payment Gateways.

Building any platform that helps users easily exchange products or services for money needs security. We have been there, we are currently there, a matter of fact, this is our playground.

We have built several platforms (e-commerce, donations, collections, etc.) that has required that we employ the use of one payment gateway merchant or the other. In this article, we will be sharing from our experience several payment gateways merchants that we have at one point or the other used or considered using, and our opinion about them.

Contrary to popular knowledge, there are several available options of Payment gateway merchants available for use, especially in Nigeria

1. Paystack

Yes, we are starting with one of the most popular gateways with developers. Affording users to make payments online via their debit and credit cards, Paystack ensures an easy, reliable, and secure option to receive payment from multiple channels, as well as disburse funds as you see fit, without having to write any code. Paystack as many other payment gateway platforms provides developers with its API that can easily be integrated into any web platform for transactions online.

The API features allow you to

• Resolve Account Number API

Verify if the bank account details provided by customers are correct.

• Transfer API

Automatically transfer money directly to your customers' bank accounts.

• Charge Authorization

Debit a customer and get a unique token you can use for future charges.

• Transactions API

Get paid by your customers in multiple currencies

Pricing:

Setup Fee: Free

Local Cards: 1.5% + ₦100

International Cards: 3.9% + ₦100

₦100 fee is waived for transactions less than ₦2500.

2. Flutterwave

“The easiest way to make and accept payments from customers anywhere in the world”. Known for easily affording consumers to pay/buy products/services in their local currency. Taking off the burden and expenses of integrating banks and payment-service providers respectively.

Constantly providing users with several products such as Rave, Barter, etc. Flutterwaves Gateway features include:

• Checkout

Seamless and quick experience for your customers.

• Card Issuing and Management

Create and manage custom virtual cards.

• Store

Start selling online with Flutterwave store

• Invoices

Send invoices to your customers via email or WhatsApp.

• Payment Links

Receive payments with ease without a website or integration.

Pricing:

Local Payments:

Payment method: MasterCard, Visa, Bank Account, USSD- 1.4%Processing fee

International Payments:

MasterCard, Visa, American Express-3.5% Processing fee

3. Interswitch

“An Africa-focused integrated digital payments and commerce company that facilitates the electronic circulation of money as well as the exchange of value between individuals and organizations on a timely and consistent basis.”.

Interswitch aids users to receive online payment from cardholders.

Interswitch provides the below options to users:

• Revenue Collection
• Funds Disbursement
• Retail Payment
• Fraud Management System
• Loyalty Solution
• Payment Platforms / eCommerce

Pricing:

Setup fee: one-time integration fee of N150,000

A fee of 1.5% of the value of the transaction subject to a cap of N2,000 is charged. (i.e. for transactions below N133,333, a fee of 1.5% applies), and N2,000 flat fee (for transactions above N133,333).

4. Remita

Remita is dedicated to aiding users to “Generate greater income. Receive more money conveniently”. Recognized for being the number one choice of the Nigerian Government for collecting digital payment resulting from its reliability

Offering services such as

• Accept Payments:
• Accept Payment through our multiple payment channels
• Pay Salaries and Statutory Payments
• View all your account balances
• Keep track of all your account balances in one view
• Track your inflow

Via several mediums such as Internet Banking, Debit/Credit Cards, Bank Branch, POS Terminals, Mobile Wallet, Cash Agents, mPOS, Direct Debit, Standing Order, and Electronic Purse.

Pricing:

Setup & Support fee: free

Payments: #100 per transaction Receive

Receive Payments: 2% Min ₦100 - Max ₦2,500

5. eTranzact

eTranzact is Nigeria's first award-winning multi-application, multi-channel electronic transaction switching and payment processing platform.

“eTranzact is Nigeria's premier payment processing platform.” Crossing the borders of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, and the UK. Its services include all types of e-payment from ATM, Internet, POS, and Mobile.

With several other services such as SwitchIT, PocketMoni (Digital Wallet), CorporatePay (An online real-time platform for bulk payments), WebConnect (direct payments with bank accounts), PayOutlet (Pay bills and top up)

6. GT Pay

From the Guarantee trust Bank of Nigeria, “GTPay is a secure internet payment gateway developed to facilitate payments online using debit Cards issued by banks on the Interswitch Network.”

Bridging the gap between clients’ websites and financial institutions. Safe transactions using both local and international cards (VISA, MasterCard, etc.). A 48 working hours delivery of value is attached to this platform.

Pricing:

Setup fee: N75,000

MasterCard/Visa (local): 1.5% of transaction amount (subject to a maximum of N2,000)

Interswitch Verve (local): 1.5% of transaction amount (subject to a maximum of N2,000

MasterCard/Visa (International): 3% of transaction amount; no cap

International Gateway Monthly Charge: N5,000

7. Vogue Pay

“Start sending and receiving payment today. A simple and secure way to send and receive payments globally.”

Offerings:

• International payments.

VoguePay’s global coverage allows consumers and businesses to safely make and receive payments in all major currencies, regardless of location.

• Give your customers more ways to pay online.

Stop losing sales. Give your customers more ways to pay online: Internet banking (direct pay), wallet transfers, mobile payment, subscription billing.

• Business Intelligence and analytics tools.

Get a bird's eye look at your sales, revenue, and cash flow with detailed reports. We also send a weekly performance report to keep your updated.

Pricing:

Setup fee:

N1500 (with Corporate Affairs Commission Certificate) and N2500 (with Government issued Identity cards)

Verve Card/ Naira MasterCard: 2.5%

Visa (Vpay) integration: 2.5%

International Payments( USD Debit/Credit Card Visa and MasterCard): 4.5% (No Gateway Fees Applicable)

Withdraw Funds:

1% + 120 Naira

8. First Pay Link

From Nigeria’s top tier bank “First Bank”, First Pay Link “enables internet payments on merchants/eCommerce websites.”.

Offerings:

Seamless flow for customers uses.

Provides on-screen payment success notifications.

Generates, displays, and emails payment receipts

It provides Merchant reports with flexibility

Pricing:

Setup fee:

A one-off implementation cost of N50,000 per Switch (Card scheme), to be borne by the Merchant.

Transaction fees:

A transaction charge of 1.5%, subject to a maximum of N2,000. To be borne by the Merchant

9. Cash Envoy

“CashEnvoy is a payment service that allows businesses to receive payment online. The payment platform commenced operations in November 2009. Websites that integrate with CashEnvoy can accept payment from all the major Nigerian debit cards, international Visa/Mastercards, and also from the CashEnvoy wallet.”

“CashEnvoy is owned by E-Settlement Ltd, an independent, private sector-led, limited liability company located in Lagos, Nigeria focused on providing Innovative, Dependable, Easy-to-use, Affordable, and Secure payment solutions.”

Offerings:

• Accept payment on your online store via debit cards, internet banking, and CashEnvoy wallet.
• Receive payment and donations online with ease.
• Easy to use, with complete transaction records.
• No integration or subscription fees!
• Easily pay and settle other merchants on your platform.

Pricing:

Send/Make Payments (To business account only): Free

Withdraw funds: N120.00 (fee for withdrawals of ₦4,000.00 or less)

Receive payments:

Local: 1.5% + N25.00 |

Intl: 3.9% + N12.60

10. Global Pay

“With a one-time integration, GlobalPay enables merchants to receive payments via MasterCard, Visa, and Verve cards from any part of the world.”

Offerings:

• Accepts locally and internationally issued cards: MasterCard, Visa, Verve, and Etranzact.
• Processes all major debit, credit, and prepaid cards.
• Online real-time log for monitoring transactions as they occur.
• Real-time online processing transactions i.e. instant debit of cardholder’s account immediately payment is made.
• Single integration for multiple card acceptance.

Pricing:

Setup fee (Local): ₦75,000.00

Transaction fee: 1.5% of transaction amount (subject to a maximum of ₦2,000

Setup fee (International): ₦75,000.00

Transaction fee: 3.5% of transaction amount; no cap

Monthly Access Fee: ₦5,000.00

Foreign Settlement Charge: $50 (per settlement)

11. PAYU

“Give your customers the best payment experience from anywhere with multiple payment options.”. in as easy and convenient steps, all you need to help your customers conveniently make deposits are their phone numbers and emails.

Easy to use API integration for your developers. 100+ payment options

Offerings:

• Best success rate
• All payment options
• 24x7 support
• No documents required to start integrating
• Custom checkout experience

Setup fee:

No information available on this yet.

It would worth it to know that you can also use these platforms without having to incorporate them into your corporate website. You could easily manage your transactions from your dashboard, while some even help you set up a virtual storefront to display your products and services.

However, having a corporate website of your own helps your organization to communicate reliability on your brand, as well as trust and loyalty, you also get to have control of the information made available to visitors to your website.

At KJK Africa, we scrutinize these and more available options that best fit our clients’ modus operandi, the safest, most secure, and ease of use considering the users, before we integrate a payment gateway to your website.