Zap by PayStack: Another Consumer Fintech by the Big 3: Will It Survive?
In Nigeria’s consumer payments space, where giants like Opay reign and fallen comrades like Wallets Africa and Barter by Flutterwave litter the battlefield, a new warrior has emerged: Zap by PayStack.
In Nigeria’s consumer payments space, where giants like Opay reign and fallen comrades like Wallets Africa and Barter by Flutterwave litter the battlefield, a new warrior has emerged: Zap by PayStack.
Positioned as Nigeria’s “fastest, smoothest, most reliable” bank transfer app, according to its website, Zap enters a market where success is anything but guaranteed. The burning question everyone would ask is: Can PayStack’s new baby thrive where others have crashed?
Who are the Fintech Big 3?
Afrobeats introduced the concept of the elite league of artistes, who are regarded as the top three and have dominated the market for an extended period, building fan base, streaming numbers, and listenership.
We have also seen a similar trend in fintech companies that have built a customer base, network, and footprint.
At the moment, Opay dominates Nigeria’s informal sector - a market teeming with dispatch riders, street retail vendors, and small-business owners who value SPEED and simplicity. Competing in this space requires more than a slick or cool app; it demands cultural fluency and trust, which Opay has achieved via its many retail plays: ORide, OCar, OFood, OWealth, and, most successful, Agency Banking.
Please read about my agenda against POS Banking the Unbanked.
Flutterwave also dominates the B2B payments and switching sector, powering many companies while extending itself with its remittance product, Send.
Interswitch has also established itself as an OG with its product suite, which it has imprinted in many different sectors in the country, covering business to government (B2G) and business to business (B2B).
But Opay isn’t the only player in this space for consumer payments, which PayStack just entered. Failed ventures like Barter by Flutterwave (RIP) and Wallets Africa (RIP) serve as cautionary tales. Interswitch still has its consumer payments app in play among this group; however, Flutterwave has shut its app down. Barter, once a pioneer of virtual cards for which I was an evangelist, fumbled its potential. Flutterwave didn’t take the product seriously enough or gave up too soon. Similarly, Wallets Africa, led by John Oke, had early promise but collapsed under mismanagement and poor customer support; at some point, the founder was blocking people on X for complaining about the product.
Then there’s PalmPay, which I led its marketing at its beginning to market entry. It really would hold the second position in that category at the moment behind Opay. ALAT by Wema Bank, which is undoubtedly one of the earliest digital banks in the country, unfortunately lost its place in that category. Paga, which is also an OG but is nowhere to be found today in the mainstream, and others jostling for relevance. Yet none have cracked Opay’s stronghold as of today.
Zap’s pitch is straightforward: Enable instant bank transfers for everyday spending (remittance + local). Today, there are no bill payments and flashy add-ons - just speed. Its secret weapon? Direct debit from users’ bank accounts. I have always had reservations regarding direct debit from the compliance side regarding limits. Still, with the introduction of Zap, I’m pretty sure this would be tidied up and a base covered by the regulators.
Will Zap succeed where others have faltered? The coming years will reveal whether PayStack can drive a significant market share in the increasingly competitive consumer fintech space.
The lingering questions remain: Can Zap differentiate itself effectively? And who will ultimately emerge as the dominant players in Nigeria's fintech ecosystem?
Another question that lingers is, who are the Fintech Big 3?
Big S/O to Shaaba George for his input on the editing process.