Top 5 Online Payment Gateways in Nigeria 2016

Receiving payments online in Nigeria can sometimes be challenging especially for merchants new to selling online. Several payment gateways in Nigeria exist and it really can be confusing to select from this ever growing list. More importantly, payment processing is critical to your online business and you want to make sure you choose the best payment gateway that suites your type of business.
Factors such as initial setup cost, transaction fees, reliability of gateway, Card types accepted, Pay-out frequency/schedule, user –friendliness, technical support and ease of integration should all be considered before selecting a payment gateway for your online store. Furthermore, the integrity and reputation of the payment gateway of choice should be researched before deciding; as some payment providers have a reputation of holding on to merchants’ funds for no good reason.
After critically evaluating most payment gateways in Nigeria with various factors mentioned above, we present a list of Top 5 payment gateways

1. Paystack

Paystack is a new electronic payment company on a mission to deliver a safe and convenient payment experience to customers and merchants in Nigeria. This service enables you to accept both one-off and recurring payments easily with no initial setup fee.
Paystack accepts both local and international cars and it also improves user friendliness as it enables merchants to securely take payments on their website without the need to redirect to the payment gateway. Transactions made through the Paystack gateway are securely processed through Access Bank (one of Nigeria’s largest Bank’s).
Transaction fees for local transactions is 1.9% + 100 naira and 3.9% + 100 naira for international transactions. Pay Out frequency is once a week and their technical support is really helpful.

2. Cash Envoy

CashEnvoy is a Nigerian payment service that started in 2009 and enables merchants receive payment online from all the major Nigerian debit cards, international Visa/Mastercards and also from the CashEnvoy wallet.
With CashEnvoy, there is no integration or subscription fees and merchants can easily sign up for the service on the company’s website. The platform also enables you to easily send money to other merchants on the payment platform. For every transaction made through CashEnvoy, the cost to the merchants is 2.5% + 12.60 naira.
CashEnvoy offers very good support and provides documentation/ ready-made plugins for popular shopping cart solutions such as woocomerce, OpenCart, Prestashop and Magento.

3. Paga

Paga is a unique online payment processor whose vision is to offer buyers and sellers a secure and easy-to-use means of transacting business online. With Paga, merchants can accept payments from customers through their e-commerce site or in-store.
There is no setup fee to use Paga and payments made by customers can be easily withdrawn to merchants’ pre-designated bank account which would be treated the same day if received before 12pm.
Transaction fees on Paga is 1.5% and all Nigerian debit cards are accepted – Visa Card, Master Card and Verve.

4. GTPay

GTPay is Guaranty Trust Bank’s online payment gateway that enables merchants accept local and international debit Cards. This gateway allows online sellers receive payments through Interswitch and Etranzact gateway for a subsidized setup fee of N75, 000. Merchants are also required to have a GT Bank business account in order to use this service.
The time taken for initial setup is long (about 2-3 months) when compared with other gateways, however once setup there is no need to worry about pay-outs from the platform as funds are automatically transferred into the merchants account as soon as payment is made. This service allows merchants peace of mind as you are sure that moneys made from your online store is immediately transferred to your account.
Transaction fees for local cards is 1.79% and 3% for International Cards. Recurring Payments is not currently supported on the platform but the support offered by the GTPay support team is really great.

5. Interswitch WebPay

Interswitch WebPay is a pioneer web payment gateway in Nigeria that has enabled merchants accept online payments for a very long time. This payment gateway allows any merchants seeking to offer visitors the facility to pay for goods or services by their bank issued cards or other payment tokens the ability to do so.
WebPay requires an initial setup fee of N150, 000 and a corporate bank account that has existed for at least six (6) months with any Nigerian bank. The gateway can process MasterCard, Verve and the regular Nigerian Interswitch cards. Integration can take a while as it often involves back and forth between the merchant, the merchants bank and Interswitch.
Transaction fees is 1.5% and the technical support offered by Interswitch is really good.