Paystack extends “Pay With Apple Pay” service to South Africa and Cote D’Ivoire

Paystack has expanded its “Pay With Apple Pay” payment option to include Cote D’Ivoire and South Africa, allowing users to make payments on iOS apps and through the Safari web browser. This development comes two years after introducing the service in Nigeria and a year after its launch in Ghana.

The new facility enables merchants in five African nations (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, and Kenya) to accept payments from users in countries that support Apple Pay, including the US, UK, Canada, and several African nations. However, to facilitate the payments, the merchant must activate international payments, even if the payment channel accepts GHS, NGN, KES, ZAR, and USD* currencies. A notification on Paystack’s website clarifies that only traders in Nigeria and Kenya can utilize USD.

Users with an existing Apple Pay account and a card already added should be able to see this new payment option, according to the fintech. Only cardholders at participating banks in supported countries are reportedly eligible for the service.

In practice, this means users who have activated Apple Pay on their devices and are paying with a card issued outside of their home country will have the choice to checkout using Apple Pay and complete the transaction with Touch ID or Face ID.

Apple Pay, a digital wallet and mobile payment service from Apple, enables customers to validate transactions with Touch ID or Face ID instead of having to fill out lengthy payment forms manually.

The mobile payment platform, Paystack, debuted its digital services in Africa in March 2021, starting in South Africa. Paystack was established by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi in 2015 and later acquired by Stripe in 2020. This Nigerian fintech venture allows businesses to accept payments through both local and international routes.

From its initial launch in Nigeria, Paystack has grown and now operates in six additional African countries, including: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, and Rwanda. The company obtained operating licenses for Egypt and Rwanda in November 2023, and developed partnerships with financial institutions in Côte d’Ivoire to offer financial services.

In Nigeria, the company launched the Pay with Apple Pay feature, becoming the first payment gateway in the country to support this payment service. Consequently, Nigerian businesses gained access to the considerable user base of Apple Pay, which is active in over 60 countries.