Paystack revives Consumer App, Zap, eight months after $190,000 fine

Paystack, the African payments processor acquired by Stripe, has restored access to its consumer app, Zap, reintegrating the service into its checkout infrastructure less than a year after a clash with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The relaunch marks a strategic recovery for the Lagos-based fintech, which was hit with a 250 million naira ($190,000) fine eight months ago. Regulators had penalised the firm for allegedly operating Zap—a peer-to-peer transfer service with deposit-taking capabilities—outside the scope of its existing licenses. The restoration of the service suggests that Paystack has resolved the compliance disputes that previously forced the product offline.

Under the new framework, Zap has been repositioned as a direct payment option within Paystack’s checkout ecosystem. According to the company, the service is now automatically available to merchants who accept bank transfers, requiring no additional technical integration.

The return of Zap highlights the delicate balance fintechs must strike in Nigeria, where the CBN has aggressively tightened oversight on digital banks and payment service providers. The regulator’s initial crackdown on Zap stemmed from concerns over non-bank actors offering wallet and deposit services without full banking licenses. By embedding Zap directly into the merchant checkout flow—rather than positioning it solely as a standalone consumer wallet—Paystack appears to be leveraging its core processing business to drive adoption while staying within regulatory bounds.

The move places Paystack in renewed competition with consumer-facing giants like OPay and Moniepoint, as well as traditional bank apps, as the battle for Nigeria’s digital payment volumes intensifies.

*This is a developing story