Which payment gateway should you use in Zambia?
This is the most-asked question in Zambian developer communities — asked over 30 separate times in three years in a single WhatsApp group, and still being asked on the last day of that archive. It gets re-answered from memory every time.
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 | As of mid-2026 it is the option practitioners still name for cards. See card payments — the situation is bad. |
| 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.
Reported setup fees:
| Provider | Reported setup fee | Date reported |
|---|---|---|
| Lipila (Hobbiton) | Free | Apr 2026 |
| 543 Konse Konse / cGrate | Free if you self-integrate — but $1,000 and “K5,800” also reported | Sep 2025 / Oct 2023 |
| DPO | None, free test environment | Confirmed by 4 people, Oct 2023; also Feb 2025 |
| Digital PayGo | None if you self-integrate | Apr 2026 |
| Tingg (Cellulant) | $500 or $1,000 — contested | Oct 2023 / Mar 2024 |
| Kazang | $2,000 “commitment fee” | Oct 2023 |
| ZynlePay | K7,000 | Apr 2026 |
| PrimePay / PrimeNet | K12,000 | Aug 2025, quoted by its own staff |
One practitioner’s argument against them, which the wiki finds sound: aggregators are not themselves charged a once-off integration fee by MTN, Airtel or Zamtel, so a setup fee is a cost being passed to you rather than one being incurred.
Transaction rates people report paying
Directionally accurate; verify before you build a margin on any of these.
| Provider | Reported 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 estimate) | Oct 2023 |
| Direct MNO integration | ~2% | Mar 2025 |
| PrimePay / PrimeNet | 3% mobile, 4% card | Aug 2025 |
| Tumeny | 3% or 4% — contested in the same thread | Mar 2024 |
| Lenco / BroadPay | 3.5% mobile, 3.8% card | Dec 2023 / Mar 2024 |
| Tingg (Cellulant) | “rounds off to almost 5%“ | Mar 2024 |
Going direct to each mobile network is cheaper per transaction but you then manage three integrations, three reconciliations and three floats. The commonly given advice is that a single aggregator merchant account is worth the spread unless volume is high.
Settlement — ask before you integrate
| Provider | Reported settlement | 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 the single most repeated operational complaint in the source material — “the pain point seems to be withdrawing collected funds, it takes loooong” (Feb 2024), and one report of a settlement outstanding for over a month (Oct 2023).
Subscriptions do not work on mobile money
This surprises people repeatedly, so it is worth stating plainly:
Zambian mobile money has no card-style recurring debit. You cannot pull funds on a schedule. Asked directly in June 2026 whether auto-payments were possible on mobile money, the answer from the group’s most experienced payments contributor was simply “Nope.”
Workarounds people actually use:
- 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 — several people settled on this for SaaS in 2026.
Do you need a BOZ licence?
Usually not, if you use somebody else’s rails. The consistent answer across the source material: you need a Bank of Zambia licence 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.
Known open questions
Asked in the community and never satisfactorily answered. If you know, you can fix these:
- What does DPO actually charge per transaction? Asked Sep 2023. Never answered, anywhere, in three years of archives.
- What are Flutterwave’s rates for recurring payments in Zambia? Asked Apr 2025. Zero replies.
- What are the withdrawal fees and minimums across the main gateways? Asked Jan 2025 and Sep 2025. Zero replies both times.
- How do you integrate with the Government Service Bus (GSB) for payment routing? Asked May 2026. Zero replies.
- Which gateways impose API rate limits? Answered contradictorily and never resolved.
Provider pages
- DPO — the card default, and the most complained-about
- Lenco (BroadPay, formerly Sparco) — easiest onboarding, cards long down. Page not written yet.
- PawaPay — the 2026 favourite for mobile money. Page not written yet.
See the provider comparison for the full side-by-side table.