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WooCommerce Selects Paystack as Preferred Payments Partner in Africa

WooCommerce has named Paystack its preferred payments partner for WooCommerce in Africa. More than 20,000 merchants are using the free Paystack WooCommerce Payment Gateway plugin but searching for and downloading the plugin separately is no longer required. Store owners can now easily select Paystack as a payment method when inside the WooCommerce dashboard.

Paystack has a recently updated tutorial for how to set up the gateway in WooCommerce. As an alternative to the recommended method, merchants can opt to install the free plugin instead.

Paystack is the most widely used payment gateway in Africa, accounting for more than half of all online transactions in Nigeria. More than 60,000 stores use the gateway. In October 2020, it was acquired by Stripe for more than $200M. The gateway can be used by businesses in Nigeria and Ghana and last month it added support for South Africa, after a six-month long pilot program.

“Paystack is leading the charge in bringing a world-class payments experience to African merchants,” WooCommerce Director of Business Development Mechiel Couvaras said. “Their product offering, user experience, and expansion plans within Africa were some of the most important factors in considering the partnership. Receiving funding from  Stripe and Visa was also a strong indicator of their potential.”

Paystack, like all of WooCommerce’s other payment partners, has a financial arrangement with the e-commerce platform where it pays a percentage of transactions processed. Couvaras said the Paystack partnership is directly with Paystack and separate from WooCommerce’s Stripe partnership.

“eCommerce is still very nascent in most African countries, however, Nigeria and South Africa are amongst our fastest growing countries globally,” Couvaras said. When Stripe acquired Paystack, the company noted that African online commerce is growing 21% year-over-year, 75% faster than the global average. WooCommerce is well-positioned to capture some of that growth with Paystack pre-installed as a preferred payment partner.

The e-commerce platform is also keeping tabs on other emerging markets, as global market adoption has grown to 8.2% of the Alexa top 10 million websites. Over the past year WooCommerce launched partnerships with Indian payment companies Razorpay and PayU India, as well as Mercado Pago, a Latin American payments company focused on supporting local payment methods across Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.

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Stripe Acquires Paystack for $200M+

The big news in the world of e-commerce today is Stripe’s acquisition of Paystack, a Nigeria-based payments system that is widely used throughout African markets. The company, which became informally known as “the Stripe of Africa” picked up $8 million in Series A funding in 2018, led by Stripe, Y Combinator, and Tencent. Paystack has grown to power more than 60,000 businesses, including FedEx, UPS, MTN, the Lagos Internal Revenue Service, and AXA Mansar.

Stripe’s acquisition of the company is rumored to be more than $200M, a small price to pay for a foothold in emerging African markets. In the company’s announcement, Stripe noted that African online commerce is growing 21% year-over-year, 75% faster than the global average. Paystack dominates among payment systems, accounting for more than half of all online transactions in Nigeria.

“In just five years, Paystack has done what many companies could not achieve in decades,” Stripe EMEA business lead Matt Henderson said. “Their tech-first approach, values, and ambition greatly align with our own. This acquisition will give Paystack resources to develop new products, support more businesses and consolidate the hyper-fragmented African payments market.”

Long term, Stripe plans to embed Paystack’s capabilities in its Global Payments and Treasury Network (GPTN), the company’s programmable infrastructure for global money movement.

“Paystack merchants and partners can look forward to more payment channels, more tools, accelerated geographic expansion, and deeper integrations with global platforms,” Paystack CEO and co-founder Shola Akinlade said. He also assured customers that there’s no need to make any changes to their technical integrations, as Paystack will continue expanding and operating independently in Africa.

Paystack is used as a payment gateway for thousands of WordPress-powered stores through plugins for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Paid Membership Pro, Give, Contact Form 7, and an assortment of booking plugins. The company has an official WordPress plugin, Payment Forms for Paystack, which is active on more than 6,000 sites, but most users come through the Paystack WooCommerce Payment Gateway (20,000+ active installations).

Stripe’s acquisition was a bit of positive news during what is currently a turbulent time in Nigeria, as citizens are actively engaged in peaceful protests to end police brutality. Paystack’s journey is an encouraging example of the flourishing Nigerian tech ecosystem and the possibilities available for smaller e-commerce companies that are solving problems and removing barriers for businesses in emerging markets.