Flutterwave, Paystack and Africa's Payment Rails

For most of the past decade, an African online business that wanted to get paid turned to Flutterwave or Paystack. Both Nigerian companies built simple APIs on top of fragmented local systems, and both are now changing shape. Understanding how Flutterwave, Paystack and Africa's payment rails work explains where African payments are heading, and what Tunisian fintechs can learn from it.

Gateways on top of fragmented rails

A payment gateway sits between a merchant and the underlying "rails": card networks, interbank transfer systems, USSD codes on basic phones and mobile money wallets. In most African markets, each rail has its own rules, partners and technical standards.

Flutterwave and Paystack made their names by hiding that complexity. Paystack's website lists cards, bank accounts, bank transfers, USSD, POS terminals, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa QR and mobile money among its channels, and says it is trusted by more than 200,000 businesses. It names Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt and Rwanda among its markets.

Flutterwave, founded in 2016, focuses more on cross-border flows: collecting payments in one country and paying out in another. According to IBS Intelligence, its network spans more than 30 countries.

Paystack: from Stripe acquisition to a bank licence

Stripe bought Paystack in 2020 for about $200 million, one of the first large exits in African tech. The more recent story is about bank transfers. According to Launch Base Africa, bank transfers made up 66% of Paystack's Nigerian transaction volume in 2024, against 28% two years earlier. Nigeria's instant interbank transfer system had become the rail customers preferred, ahead of cards.

That shift squeezes a gateway's margin, because transfers are cheap and banks control the accounts. Paystack's answer has been to move closer to the money:

• Zap, a peer-to-peer payment app launched in March 2025, ran into trouble with the Central Bank of Nigeria, which reportedly fined Paystack ₦250 million over licensing concerns. It was relaunched in late 2025 as a checkout option.
• In early 2026, Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank, now Paystack MFB, a sister company with its own licence. It can take deposits directly and plans working-capital loans for merchants based on their transaction data.

Launch Base Africa notes that Paystack is a late entrant in consumer finance, facing OPay, PalmPay and Moniepoint, which have far larger user bases and agent networks.

Flutterwave: open banking, stablecoins and an IPO goal

Flutterwave has followed a similar logic. In January 2026, it acquired Mono, a Nigerian open-banking startup often compared to Plaid. IBS Intelligence reported an all-stock deal valued at $25 million to $40 million. Mono's APIs let companies access bank data with customer consent, verify identities and start bank payments. It claims more than 8 million linked bank accounts. Africa.com reported that Flutterwave expects the deal to cut its costs on account-to-account payments.

In June 2026, Flutterwave announced a Series E that, according to TechCabal, valued it at $3.25 billion. The amount was not disclosed. Ripple, the US blockchain payments company, became a shareholder, and Flutterwave plans to integrate Ripple's RLUSD dollar stablecoin so customers can send, hold and convert stablecoins. Flutterwave has talked about a stock market listing for years, but no date has been set.

Both moves show the same strategy: own more of the stack. Gateways that only route payments are exposed to fee pressure. Owning bank data, a licence or a settlement asset gives them more control over cost and revenue.

The public rails matter as much as the private ones

The Nigerian story is not only about two startups. Paystack's shift to bank transfers happened because Nigeria's interbank instant payment system worked well and was widely used. Flutterwave's push into stablecoins reflects how slow and expensive cross-border settlement between African currencies still is, a gap that the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System is also trying to fill.

In other words, private gateways grow on top of public infrastructure. When that infrastructure improves, gateways must move up to lending, data and banking to keep their margins.

What it means for Tunisia

Tunisia does not appear among the markets Paystack lists, and the Tunisian dinar's convertibility limits make it hard for pan-African gateways to serve local merchants. Tunisian businesses rely on local players: banks' acquiring services such as ClicToPay, and licensed fintechs such as Konnect Networks and Paymee.

The Nigerian experience offers several lessons:

• Rails come first. A fast, cheap, interoperable transfer system changes customer behaviour. Tunisia's work on instant payments will shape what local gateways can offer.
• Open banking is a growth layer. Mono shows the value of consent-based access to bank data for lending and onboarding. Tunisia has no comparable framework yet (see open banking in Tunisia).
• Licences become strategic. Both Nigerian leaders sought a stronger regulatory position. Tunisian fintechs should treat a payment institution licence as an asset, not a formality.
• Cross-border is the hard part. Until FX rules allow easier international settlement, Tunisian exporters and freelancers will keep using workarounds that a regional gateway could replace.