Which payment gateway should you use in Zambia?

Community-sourced — help us verify it

Most of this page is graded hearsay: real practitioners reported it, but nobody re-checked it against a provider’s own pricing page. Fees and availability in this market change fast. Check anything you are about to act on, then update this page.

This is the most common question in Zambian developer communities.

The short answer

First decide whether you need cards, because that changes everything.

You need	Start with	Why
Mobile money only (most local products)	PawaPay, 543 Konse Konse (cGrate), Lipila	Cheapest rates, simplest onboarding, no card compliance burden
Cards as well	DPO	The most widely used option for card acceptance. See card payments — options are limited.
International customers	A foreign entity + Stripe, or a merchant-of-record	See receiving international payments
Recurring subscriptions on mobile money	Nothing does this	See below

Do not pay a setup fee without asking why

Setup fees in this market range from zero to K12,000 for functionally similar integrations, and the fee often disappears if you do the integration yourself.

Provider	Setup fee	Date reported
Lipila (Hobbiton)	Free	Apr 2026
543 Konse Konse / cGrate	Free if you self-integrate; $1,000 and K5,800 also quoted	Sep 2025 / Oct 2023
DPO	None; free test environment	Oct 2023 / Feb 2025
Digital PayGo	None if you self-integrate	Apr 2026
Tingg (Cellulant)	$500 or $1,000 (varies)	Oct 2023 / Mar 2024
Kazang	$2,000 commitment fee	Oct 2023
ZynlePay	K7,000	Apr 2026
PrimePay / PrimeNet	K12,000	Aug 2025

Aggregators are not themselves charged a once-off integration fee by MTN, Airtel or Zamtel, so a setup fee represents a margin rather than a pass-through cost.

Note

Contested. DPO’s setup fee has been reported as ~K5,000, but multiple sources contradict this and indicate no setup fee is charged. The weight of evidence favours no fee.

Transaction rates

Directionally accurate; verify before you build a margin on any of these.

Provider	Rate	Date
cGrate / 543 Konse Konse	1.5% mobile money	Aug 2025, Apr 2026
Digital PayGo	1.5%	Apr 2026
Tilt (Zoona)	2.5% + K1,000/month minimum commission	Dec 2023
eLipa	~2.5% (pre-launch)	Oct 2023
Direct MNO integration	~2%	Mar 2025
PrimePay / PrimeNet	3% mobile, 4% card	Aug 2025
Tumeny	3% or 4% (contested)	Mar 2024
Lenco / BroadPay	3.5% mobile, 3.8% card	Dec 2023 / Mar 2024
Tingg (Cellulant)	~5%	Mar 2024

Going direct to each mobile network is cheaper per transaction but requires managing three integrations, three reconciliations and three floats. A single aggregator merchant account is generally worth the spread unless volume is high.

Settlement — ask before you integrate

Provider	Settlement terms	Date
Lenco / BroadPay	Instant on mobile money, T+1 local cards, T+8 international	Jul 2024
Sparco (pre-Lenco)	Daily to bank above ~K1,000	Oct 2023
DPO	T+2, auto-settles above ~$100 balance	Oct 2024 / Oct 2023

DPO settlement is a common operational pain point. Withdrawing collected funds can be slow, with delays of a month or more reported in some cases.

Subscriptions do not work on mobile money

Zambian mobile money has no card-style recurring debit. You cannot pull funds on a schedule. There is no auto-debit or standing-order mechanism available through mobile money.

Common workarounds:

• Prompt-and-remind — notify the user, they approve each cycle. What most local products do.
• A wallet you top up — the user funds a balance you draw down. Adds float and, depending on how you hold the money, potentially a regulatory obligation. See regulation.
• Card debit orders — works, but you need card acceptance and possibly PCI DSS compliance.
• A merchant-of-record for foreign customers — a common approach for SaaS products.

Do you need a BOZ licence?

Usually not, if you use somebody else’s rails. A Bank of Zambia licence is required if you hold customer funds or want to connect to the National Financial Switch. If you are calling an existing gateway’s API and the money sits with the mobile network or the aggregator, you generally do not need one.

Do not rely on this wiki for licensing

Cost and duration estimates range widely, from less than K5,000 to $70,000 or more, and from three months to three years. These figures are unreconciled and likely reflect different licence categories.

Get requirements from the Bank of Zambia directly — their payment systems department publishes designation requirements and accepts meeting requests.

Known open questions

The following questions remain unanswered. If you know, contribute.

• What does DPO actually charge per transaction? No confirmed rate is publicly available.
• What are Flutterwave’s rates for recurring payments in Zambia? Unknown.
• What are the withdrawal fees and minimums across the main gateways? Not documented.
• How do you integrate with the Government Service Bus (GSB) for payment routing? No public documentation found.
• Which gateways impose API rate limits? Conflicting information; unresolved.

Provider pages

• DPO — the primary option for card acceptance
• Lenco (BroadPay) — mobile money across all three MNOs; card acceptance currently unavailable
• GeePay — mobile-money collections across all three MNOs; firsthand integration notes
• PawaPay — widely used for mobile money. Page not written yet.

See the provider comparison for the full side-by-side table.