The African Payment Stack: Navigating Stripe, Paystack, and the Rise of Stablecoins

​If you are a developer in San Francisco, you plug in Stripe and go to sleep. If you are a developer in Lagos, Nairobi, or Accra, "plug and play" doesn't exist. You have to worry about currency fluctuations, "card not supported" errors, and the dreaded 3D Secure failures.
​Building for Africa requires a hybrid mindset. You aren't just choosing a gateway; you are choosing how much friction your users can tolerate.
​1. Paystack: The Gold Standard for Local UX
​Paystack (and its peer Flutterwave) remains the "Stripe of Africa" for a reason.
​The Win: They handle local payment methods—Bank transfers, USSD, and Mobile Money—flawlessly. In a market where credit card penetration is low, being able to accept a bank transfer is the difference between a conversion and a bounce.
​The Loss: Settlement. If you are a Nigerian business selling to the world, getting your USD out of the system and into your hands at a fair rate is still a hurdle.
​2. Stripe: The Global Dream (With a Catch)
​Every African founder wants a Stripe account. It’s clean, the documentation is world-class, and it handles global subscriptions (SaaS) better than anyone.
​The Catch: Unless you have an Atlas-incorporated US entity or live in an officially supported region, you are locked out. Even then, your African customers will often see their cards declined by their local banks for "international transactions."
​3. Crypto (Stablecoins): The Silent Revolution
​In 2026, Stablecoins ($USDC / $USDT) are no longer "speculative." For many African devs, they are a practical API.
​The Win: Instant settlement. No 3-day wait for funds. No "official vs. black market" rate drama.
​The Infrastructure: Using tools like BVNK or Lazerpay (or building custom on-chain listeners), you can accept payments that bypass the traditional banking bottleneck entirely.
​The "Pro" Strategy
​The best apps I see today don't choose one. They use a Multi-Gateway Strategy:
​Paystack/Flutterwave for local, high-trust, bank-transfer-heavy transactions.
​Stripe for high-ticket international customers.
​Stablecoins for cross-border B2B or tech-savvy users who want to avoid FX fees.
​Hi, I'm Frank Oge. I build high-performance software and write about the tech that powers it. If you enjoyed this, check out more of my work at frankoge.com