How businesses in England can accept online payments in Africa

African markets are completely different from UK-EU markets when it comes to accepting payments.

Payment preferences differ in the various markets with mobile money dominating as the most convenient method for transacting in Africa especially in East Africa.

• Kenya - M-Pesa (Safaricom)

• Tanzania - M-Pesa (Vodacom), Airtel money, Tigo Pesa

• Uganda - MTN Mobile money, Airtel money

• Rwanda - Airtel money, MTN Mobile money (MOMO)

• Nigeria and Ghana - MTN Mobile money (MOMO)

• South Africa - has a mix of traditional banking and mobile wallets.

Business in England that insist on Visa and Mastercard run a risk of losing many African customers which poses a need to integrate local payment methods in their systems.

But with the existence of African focused payment gateways, that process is a walk in the park for businesses in England.

With just one integration, the businesses are able to accept online payments in Africa.

In this article we take through the journey of payment gateways that have excelled at routing payments into international accounts.

1. Elemitech (Elemipay)

2. Dusupay

3. DPO (Direct Pay Online)

4. Flutterwave

5. Paystack

1. Elemitech (Elemipay)

Elemipay is specifically designed to help businesses accept payments from African customers and settle funds internationally with a single integration.

How Elemipay works for English businesses:

• It supports payments from 14 African countries using their local payment methods, that is, mobile money, bank transfers, cards.

• It settles in USDT wallets helping the business skip the stage of FX manual transfers.

• It supports various integration options, that is, API integration, payment links and invoicing and dashboard management for transactions.

• It supports instant payouts to African customers in their local currencies.

  
  

  Strengths:

• It is built for high - risk businesses like crypto, gaming, forex among others.

• It is built to handle traffic volumes and complex compliance scenarios.

• It has fast settlement cycles.

• It has great coverage across Africa.

Dusupay

Dusupay is built for business of all sizes looking to scale and dominate in the African market for both collections and payouts.

How Dusupay works for English businesses:

• It supports multi-method collection, that is, local mobile money payments and credit and debit card payments on supported accounts.

• One integration via their API unlocks all the local payment options.

• Dusupay handles multi-currency processing and cross - border settlement.

Strengths:

• It has a high-risk friendly onboarding.

• It possesses an easy API or dashboard-only setup.

• It is used by many global technology companies expanding into Africa.

3. DPO (Direct Pay Online)

This platform supports English businesses to accept payments from customers in Africa.

How DPO pay works for English businesses:

• It operates in over 20 African markets giving it a wide African coverage.

• It supports a wide range of payment methods, that is mobile money, bank cards, transfers and e-wallets.

• Easy integration with global merchants on one single API.

Strengths:

• It has fraud and chargeback management tools.

• It supports payment links and invoices.

• Integration with leading e-commerce platforms.

  
  

  

  4. Flutterwave

Flutterwave has over the years specialized in cross-border payments while supporting local African payments methods on one platform.

How Flutterwave works for English businesses:

• It has a variety of payment options, that is, mobile money, debit and credit cards, M-Pesa, POS, USSD among others.

• It operates in over 30 African countries plus Europe and North America.

• It supports payment acceptance in multiple currencies.

Strengths:

• Wide African coverage.

• It has a variety of integration options.

• It supports local payment methods for the African market.

5. Paystack

Paystack covers key markets like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.

English businesses can use it to accept payments via cards, mobile money, and bank transfer, especially for SaaS and e-commerce.

How Paystack works for English businesses:

• It has developer - friendly APIs and dashboards tailored to the African market.

• It supports local payment methods in its supported countries.

• Trusted by thousands of African online brands.

Strengths:

• It has an advanced fraud detection system.

• It provides detailed reporting for accounting and reconciliation purposes.

• It grants a seamless user experience.

• It has competitive pricing.

The payment gateways in comparison:

Payment gateway	Who it is best suited for	Nature of business
Elemitech	High-risk, cross-border, complex flows	Gaming, crypto, forex, e-commerce, remittances
Dusupay	Pan-African coverage, heavy traffic businesses	Fintechs, remittance platforms, large e-commerce with payouts, platforms needing cross-border collection & payout
DPO	Multi-market merchants, very industry specific	E-commerce, airlines, hospitality, tours and travel, schools and insurance
Futterwave	Multi-country spread / visibility	International sellers, e-commerce stores and SMEs
Paystack	Developer-friendly and subscription based	Saas, subscriptions, digital services, e-commerce in main markets

For business in England to pick a gateway to work with, a few considerations have to be made:

• What are your preferred target African markets?

• In which industry is your business?

• What is your settlement preference? USDT, USD

• What is your technical capacity for integration?

• What are your preferred transaction rates?

There is no single best gateway, for ultimate success of collections in Africa, Africans should always pay in a way this very convenient for them.