How International Payment Service Providers Can Expand to Africa Using Elemitech

A European PSP just walked away from a $2M African expansion deal. The market was there. The demand was real. But connecting to Uganda's mobile money systems would have eaten 3 months and $50K in development costs.

Building integrations for 3 African countries costs PSPs between $300K-800K upfront. Most burn through that money and still can't get payments working properly.

Africa has 54 countries. Each one has different payment methods, currencies, and rules that change faster than you can learn them. For PSPs, it's not just complicated—it's expensive as hell.

The Real Cost of Going Solo

Your Money Gets Stuck

Payment processing in Africa isn't just slow. It's broken.

Nigeria's online banking works fine until you try to settle internationally. Then you're waiting 48 hours minimum, losing 3-5% to FX spreads.

Kenya's MPESA processes payments instantly. Great. But international transfers come with surprise fees that can kill your margins.

Uganda's MTN Mobile Money promises weekly settlements. In practice, you might wait a month.

South Africa looks easier with EFT payments clearing fast. Until currency restrictions freeze your funds without warning.

A gaming company collected $180K in Kenya over two months. Simple enough. But their European bank didn't see a penny for 6 weeks. Their clients almost sued.

Rules Change Without Warning

Nigeria changed its KYC requirements last year. Thirty days notice. PSPs scrambled to update systems or face account freezes. Three international payment companies shut down their Nigerian operations completely.

Compliance in Africa isn't paperwork. It's survival.

Development Hell

Connecting to mobile money in Kenya and Uganda means dealing with 4 different APIs. Four authentication methods. Four webhook formats. Four testing environments.

Your developers spend months on integrations instead of building features that make money.

The Numbers Don't Lie

We talked to 47 international PSPs trying to enter Africa.

73% quit after their first compliance audit. Average integration time runs 8-14 months for just 3 countries. Development costs hit $400K before you process your first transaction.

Settlement delays destroy cash flow for 68% of new entrants.

PSPs that survive either have massive budgets or they found a shortcut.

Elemitech Fixes This

We've processed $187M across 13 African countries in 2024. Average integration time: 2 weeks instead of 6 months.

1. One integration handles everything Mobile money, banks, cards, EFT payments across 13+ countries. One API. No juggling multiple providers or wrestling with different documentation standards.

2. Settlements that work: Monday's collections in Lagos hit your New York bank account the following Monday. USD, EUR, or USDT. No FX surprises. No mysterious delays.

3. Compliance handled We maintain licenses and relationships in each market. Rules change, we update our systems. You keep processing payments.

4. Built for high-risk Gaming, remittance, forex, crypto. The industries other providers won't touch. We've been doing this since most African fintech companies were ideas on napkins.

Pricing That Makes Sense

0.5%–6% per collection depending on country and volume. Flat payout fee with no percentage on settlements. No setup fees. No monthly minimums.

Compare that to building in-house: $400K+ upfront, 6-14 months of development, plus compliance costs that never end.

Coverage

East Africa Uganda: MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money, Visa/Mastercard Kenya: MPESA, Airtel Money, online bankingRwanda: MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money Tanzania: Vodacom MPesa, Airtel Money, Tigopesa

West Africa Nigeria: All major banks via online banking Ghana: MTN Mobile Money

Southern Africa South Africa: EFT, Visa, Mastercard

Plus South Sudan (Mgurush) and Visa/Mastercard acceptance everywhere.

Results

"Elemitech cut our Africa go-to-market from 18 months to 2 weeks. We went from zero to processing $50K monthly in Kenya and Uganda without hiring a developer." — CTO, European Gaming Platform

"We tried building Nigeria integrations ourselves. Burned $200K and got nowhere. Elemitech had us live in 10 days." — Founder, Crypto Exchange

The Choice

African fintech grows 25% every year. Every month you wait is market share gone forever.

You can spend the next year building fragmented integrations. Deal with compliance headaches. Watch funds get stuck in settlement limbo.

Or use Elemitech and start processing African payments next week.

Book a consultation today. Stop losing deals to competitors who got there first https://calendly.com/sales-ops-elemitech/30min