Skip to content

Paystack

Paystack gives eligible businesses a checkout for accepting payments through cards and local methods such as mobile money.

Visit Paystack

Can your business use Paystack where it operates?

Paystack lists Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa as established markets. If your business is in Côte d’Ivoire or Egypt, check the current local onboarding route and whether you can get access. A buyer’s ability to pay internationally is a separate question from where you can open a merchant account.

Check the business activation status and the payout account you need. For example, M-PESA is available to eligible merchants in Kenya, and USSD, where a customer dials a short code on their phone, is an option in Nigeria. Your business makes the sale and handles delivery and refund decisions.

What does your app check before it opens a paid booking?

Create the payment from your app’s server, keep Paystack’s reference with your booking, and let the buyer finish in Paystack Checkout. When the buyer comes back, check the transaction with Paystack from your server. Match the reference, amount and currency to your booking before you reserve the place.

Paystack’s reply has two different status fields. One says your status check got an answer. The one inside the transaction details says whether the payment succeeded. Leave a pending booking waiting and keep access closed after a failed payment.

How can you check the booking rules on paper?

Use a sheet of paper and three invented booking references. Keep this entirely offline with no payment credentials, checkout or app connection. For each booking, write whether the status request worked, what the transaction says and whether the app should release a place.

  1. Compare an answer with a payment
    For booking A, write that the check returned successfully but the transaction is pending. For B, write that both the check and the matching transaction succeeded. Only B should get a place.
  2. Add a failure and a repeated result
    Mark booking C as failed. Then read the matching successful result for B again. C should still have no place and B should still have only one.

How do you check a refund when the reply never arrives?

Give each intended refund its own reference and save it before you send the request. If the reply times out, look up the existing refund by that reference. A repeat using the same reference cannot create a second refund in the same environment. A different reference can mean a different refund, so leave the case for review if its outcome remains unclear.

A refund may be pending, processing or waiting for more information. Even after the processor marks it processed, the customer’s bank can take time to show the money. Paystack says the original transaction charge is kept when you refund.

What does a sale cost and when does it reach your bank?

As of November 12, 2026, Paystack’s local Kenya schedule lists 1.5% per M-PESA transaction and 2.9% per card transaction in Kenyan shillings. Use the schedule for your merchant country, currency and payment method. International transactions can have a different rate.

A successful payment joins a payout, the transfer to the account where you receive sales proceeds. Check your country’s payout schedule separately. Export transaction and payout records from the dashboard and match them to your own bookings.