Paystack, the African payments processor owned by Stripe, has restored access to its consumer app, Zap, bringing the service back into operation less than a year after regulatory action by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) forced it offline.
The relaunch follows months of regulatory engagement after the Lagos-based fintech was fined ₦250 million in early 2025 for allegedly operating Zap outside the scope of its approved licences.
At the time, regulators raised concerns that the peer-to-peer transfer app had deposit-taking features typically reserved for fully licensed banks.
Under the revised structure, Zap has been repositioned as a payment option embedded directly within Paystack’s checkout infrastructure, rather than a standalone consumer wallet. Paystack said the service is now automatically available to merchants that already accept bank transfers on its platform, with no additional technical integration required.
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The return of Zap suggests that Paystack has addressed the compliance issues that triggered the CBN’s earlier intervention. By folding the service into its core payment-processing flow, the fintech appears to have aligned the product more closely with its licensed activities while preserving its utility for users and merchants.
The development underscores the increasingly tight regulatory environment facing Nigeria’s fintech sector, where authorities have stepped up scrutiny of digital banks and payment providers offering wallet or deposit-like services. The CBN has repeatedly warned non-bank operators against exceeding the limits of their licences, even as it supports innovation within clearly defined regulatory boundaries.
With Zap back online, Paystack re-enters the intensifying race for Nigeria’s digital payment volumes, competing once again with consumer-facing platforms such as OPay and Moniepoint, as well as traditional bank apps.
The relaunch also highlights how fintechs are adapting their product structures to survive and grow under stricter regulatory oversight, balancing innovation with compliance in Africa’s largest payments market.
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