Paystack, the West African payment gateway fintech, has entered Nigeria’s banking sector after acquiring Ladder Microfinance Bank, a major expansion beyond payments for the Stripe-owned company. The acquisition gives Paystack a microfinance banking licence and allows it to operate a new entity, Paystack Microfinance Bank (Paystack MFB), nearly a decade after the company launched in Nigeria.
The move follows years of Paystack operating as one of the country’s most widely used payment processors. The company currently processes trillions of naira in transactions every month for more than 300,000 businesses, making it a critical part of Nigeria’s digital commerce infrastructure. However, until now, Paystack relied on partner banks to hold funds and provide banking services tied to its payment products.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
With the acquisition of Ladder Microfinance Bank, Paystack can now hold deposits, issue loans, and offer banking-as-a-service products directly. According to the company, Paystack MFB will initially focus on lending to businesses before expanding to consumer banking products over time. The microfinance bank will operate independently of Paystack Payments Limited, with its own licence, governance structure, and product roadmap, while working closely with the core payments business.
Paystack’s move into banking builds on its recent push into consumer-facing financial services. In 2025, the company launched Zap, a consumer payments app, which later drew regulatory scrutiny from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The regulator fined Paystack ₦250 million for operating beyond the scope of its licence, forcing the company to pause and realign the product. Paystack has since secured regulatory approval for Zap, and the company says the earlier fine did not affect the approval process for Paystack MFB.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
By choosing to acquire a microfinance bank rather than pursue a full commercial banking licence, Paystack gains regulatory cover to offer deposits and credit without the higher capital requirements and oversight associated with traditional banks.
The structure also positions the company to address Nigeria’s small business financing gap, which is estimated at around $32 billion. Using transaction data from its payments platform, Paystack can assess business cash flows and underwrite loans more efficiently than lenders that rely on static financial records.
This move also puts Paystack in more direct competition with players like Moniepoint, OPay, PalmPay, Kuda, Carbon, and Fairmoney, companies that already combine payments, deposits, and credit. The difference is approach. While digital banks like Kuda started with consumer deposits and worked upward, Paystack is coming from the infrastructure layer, building a bank around the payment rails it has spent a decade perfecting. It’s not just an expansion; it’s a quiet but significant reshaping of where Paystack sits in Nigeria’s financial stack.
