Payment provider comparison
This is the side-by-side view. For guidance on choosing, start with which payment gateway should you use — this page is the reference table behind it.
The market at a glance
Blank cells mean nobody in the archive ever reported it — that absence is itself useful information. Dates in brackets are when the figure was last reported, not when it was set.
| Provider | Mobile money | Cards | Reported setup fee | Reported rate | Reported settlement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DPO | Yes | Yes — the 2026 default | None; free test env (Oct 2023) | Unknown — never publicly quoted | T+2, auto above ~$100 (Oct 2023–Oct 2024) |
| Lenco (BroadPay, formerly Sparco) | Yes | Down since ~early 2025 | 3.5% mobile, 3.8% card (Dec 2023–Mar 2024) | Instant MM, T+1 local cards, T+8 intl (Jul 2024) | |
| PawaPay | Yes — 2026 favourite | ||||
| 543 Konse Konse (cGrate) | Yes | Free if self-integrated; $1,000 and K5,800 also reported (2023–2025) | 1.5% mobile (Aug 2025–Apr 2026) | ||
| Lipila (Hobbiton) | Yes | Free (Apr 2026) | |||
| Digital PayGo | Yes | Free if self-integrated (Apr 2026) | 1.5% (Apr 2026) | ||
| Tingg (Cellulant) | Yes | $500 or $1,000 — contested (Oct 2023–Mar 2024) | ~5% (Mar 2024) | ||
| Kazang | Yes | $2,000 “commitment fee” (Oct 2023) | |||
| ZynlePay | Yes | K7,000 (Apr 2026) | |||
| PrimePay / PrimeNet | Yes | Yes | K12,000 — quoted by its own staff (Aug 2025) | 3% mobile, 4% card (Aug 2025) | |
| Tilt (Zoona) | Yes | 2.5% + K1,000/mo minimum (Dec 2023) | |||
| eLipa | Yes | ~2.5% pre-launch estimate (Oct 2023) | |||
| Tumeny | Yes | 3% or 4% — contested (Mar 2024) | |||
| Direct MNO (MTN / Airtel / Zamtel) | Yes | None charged to aggregators, per a practitioner | ~2% (Mar 2025) | ||
| Flutterwave | Recurring rates asked Apr 2025 — zero replies |
How to read this table
- Setup fees cluster into two camps. Providers that let you self-integrate charge nothing (DPO, Lipila, Digital PayGo, cGrate); providers that quote four- and five-figure Kwacha fees are charging for their own onboarding process, not for a cost the mobile networks impose. One practitioner’s argument the wiki finds sound: aggregators pay no once-off integration fee to MTN, Airtel or Zamtel, so a setup fee is a cost passed to you, not one incurred for you.
- Mobile-money rates run 1.5%–3.5%, with 1.5% (cGrate, Digital PayGo) at the bottom end in 2026 reports and Lenco’s 3.5% at the top. Going direct to the mobile networks is cheaper still (~2% reported) but means three integrations, three reconciliations and three floats.
- Cards are a different world. Aggregator card products degraded badly through 2025 — see accepting card payments — which is why DPO dominates the card column despite being the most complained-about provider in the archive.
- Settlement is where the pain is. Only three providers have reported settlement terms, and DPO’s cash-out delays are the single most repeated operational complaint in the archive.
Contested figures
The archive contradicts itself in places. The wiki records the disagreement rather than picking a winner:
- DPO setup fee — reported once as ~K5,000 and corrected the same day by four separate people who onboarded free. “No setup fee” is far better supported.
- Tingg setup fee — $500 (Oct 2023) and $1,000 (Mar 2024), five months apart. Both may have been true when quoted.
- cGrate setup fee — “free if you self-integrate” vs $1,000 (Sep 2025) and “K5,800” (Oct 2023). The paid figure is presumably their done-for-you integration.
- Tumeny rate — quoted at 3% and 4% in the same thread (Mar 2024), never resolved.
Known open questions
Asked in the community and never answered. If you hold one of these answers, it is worth more than any row above:
- What does DPO actually charge per transaction? Asked Sep 2023. Never answered in three years of archives.
- What are the withdrawal fees and minimums across the main gateways? Asked Jan 2025 and Sep 2025 — zero replies both times.
- What are Flutterwave’s rates for recurring payments in Zambia? Asked Apr 2025 — zero replies.
- Which providers are currently PCI DSS-suspended for cards, and which have been reinstated? The causal story behind the card column.
Provider pages
- DPO — the card default, and the most complained-about
Pages for Lenco and PawaPay have not been written yet. Your first-hand report could be the seed.