Nigeria’s Paystack Gets Payment Service Provider Licence from the Central Bank of Kenya

2026-02-06 08:50:53

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Paystack took to Twitter to announce that it had received an operating license from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) enabling the Nigerian fintech to offer payment services to Kenyan companies.

Paystack, which already operates in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, is described as an innovative startup that enables anyone to quickly set up an account and start accepting payments in under 30 minutes.

The startup powers 15% of all web payments in Nigeria serving over 60, 000 organizations that include corporates, fintech, education institutions, and small businesses.

Some of its clients include:

FedEx
UPS
MTN
Kuda Bank
Carbon
PiggyVest

In 2020, Paystack already one of the most recognized payment processing startups in Africa, made headlines in the regional tech scene when it was acquired by Stripe, a global giant in payments infrustructure. According to Stripe, Paystack presented them with the opportunity to accelerate online commerce on the continent and enable more global companies to enter this fast-growing market.

Here is what Stripe founder Patrick Collison said about Paystack:

“A lot of companies have been, let’s say, heavily influenced by Stripe. But with Paystack, clearly they’ve put a lot of original thinking into how to do things better.

There are some details of Stripe that we consider mistakes, but we can see that Paystack ‘gets it,’ it’s clear from the site and from the product sensibilities, and that has nothing to do with them being in Africa or African.”

Following its authorization in Kenya, Paystack is launching a private beta as it looks to iterate its product with businesses.

“We’ll work with an initial group of businesses to refine our platform in Kenya, implement feedback, and ensure that we build a fast, reliable, truly delightful payment experience.”

Some of the benefits of business using Paystack include:

Accept both one-time as well as automated recurring card payments
Collect payments from customers through several local and global payment channels, including M-PESA, Card payments (VISA, MasterCard, American Express), and Apple Pay
Get settled in both Kenyan Shillings (KES) and USD
Follow Paystack documentation to build custom payment features
Integrate Paytack’s inventory of plugins to collect payments through world-class tools such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix
Use Paystack’s no-code Commerce tools (Payment Pages, Storefronts, etc.) to bring ideas to market beautifully
Use the Paystack Merchant App to monitor your business on the go

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