Payouts in Africa: verified APIs for platforms and payroll

Accepting payments is well-documented. Sending money out is where most developers hit unexpected walls: fragmented mobile money operators, bank APIs that only work country-by-country, and little public clarity on fees and delivery reliability.

This guide covers all 18 verified payout resources in the Wycord registry, organized by geography and use case. Every provider is LIVE status in the registry.

The three rails you need to understand

Mobile money is the dominant rail in sub-Saharan Africa. In countries like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, and Cote d'Ivoire, more disbursements reach end users via M-Pesa, Airtel Money, MTN Mobile Money, or Orange Money than via bank transfer. Any serious payout integration needs mobile money support.

Bank transfer matters for B2B payments and payroll in Nigeria and South Africa, where bank-to-bank transfers are routine. Many platforms use both rails, routing by recipient type.

Stablecoins and crypto are a growing third rail, particularly for cross-border payouts between African markets and international contractors. USDC and USDT settlements increasingly sit alongside NGN and KES in platform architecture.

Pan-African options: one API, many markets

If you are building for multiple African markets, start here before adding country-specific integrations.

PawaPay is the clearest choice for mobile money at scale. A single REST API covers 20 African countries and roughly 85% of mobile money in Africa. You send a payout request with the country code and phone number; PawaPay routes to the right operator. Suitable for marketplaces and gig platforms paying out to unbanked users.

Tingg by Cellulant covers 24+ African markets via a single integration, supporting mobile money, cards, and bank transfers. It also includes engagement APIs for transactional SMS. A good fit if you want collections and payouts under the same contract.

NALA Rafiki Payout API is a B2B-focused option from NALA, licensed as a Payment Service Provider by the Bank of Tanzania. It covers 11 African markets and targets programmatic disbursements, including use cases like remittance payouts and payroll. The API supports both local currency and stablecoin settlement.

Bani handles cross-border payouts to 16+ countries using local-currency rails (NGN, GHS, KES, XOF, SLE, and others) alongside stablecoins, with collections and virtual accounts on the same integration. Strong fit for platforms paying African suppliers from a central treasury.

Nigeria-focused payout APIs

Nigeria has the most options, reflecting the depth of its fintech infrastructure.

Fincra covers 40+ countries and 50+ currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, KES, NGN, and GHS, with 99.95% uptime since January 2022 and SDKs in Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, and C#. It combines collections, cross-border payouts, and virtual accounts in one integration, making it practical for SaaS and marketplace stacks.

Duplo is licensed as a Payment Solution Service Provider and specifically targets B2B payments: vendor disbursements, collections, and expense management across 160+ countries. If your platform pays other businesses rather than individual consumers, Duplo is the most purpose-built option in the registry.

Grey is regulated by both FINTRAC in Canada and FinCEN in the United States. It provides multicurrency accounts with payouts to 170+ countries, plus USDC settlement. Useful for Nigerian founders paying international contractors or receiving payments from abroad while disbursing locally.

Juicyway covers NGN, CAD, USD, USDT, and USDC from a single API. The cross-currency and crypto support makes it useful for platforms bridging Nigerian naira payouts with stablecoin treasury management.

Busha is a SEC-licensed Nigerian digital-asset exchange with 1M+ users. Its business API lets platforms accept crypto, convert to stablecoins, and process payouts, covering the crypto-to-fiat disbursement case without a separate off-ramp integration.

East Africa and West Africa

IntaSend API is Kenya's most documented multi-rail option. Collections via M-Pesa cost 3%, local cards 3.5%, international cards 4.5%. M-Pesa disbursements are a flat KSh 100 per transaction regardless of amount, which makes it cost-efficient for smaller payouts. Bank payouts and cross-border transfers to 8+ African countries are also supported.

ClickPesa covers Tanzania, aggregating M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Mixx by YAS, HaloPesa, NMB, CRDB bank transfers, and Visa/Mastercard via Payout API endpoints. If Tanzania is a meaningful market for your platform, ClickPesa is the verified all-in-one option.

Theteller (PaySwitch) is Ghana's verified payout gateway, supporting card, mobile money (MTN, Vodafone, AirtelTigo, Zeepay, G-money), and bank-transfer payouts with Android and iOS SDKs.

Francophone West Africa

FedaPay is the main option for Benin and French-speaking West Africa, supporting mobile money collections and payouts via payment links, hosted pages, and direct API. An official Node.js SDK is also in the registry.

Wave Business API handles payouts and bulk disbursements in FCFA across Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire. If your users are on Wave, which has high penetration in these markets, this is the most direct payout path.

For teams building AI agents

Two MCP servers in the registry expose payout capabilities to AI agents without custom integration work.

ChiaSDK MCP is a unified TypeScript MCP server wrapping PawaPay (20+ countries), PayChangu (Malawi), and OneKhusa (Malawi/Southern Africa), published as @chiahq/mcp on npm.

Interswitch MCP Server exposes Interswitch APIs including transfers and payouts to AI agents via npm, with sandbox and production support.

What to use when

Situation	Recommended option
Paying mobile money users across 5+ African countries	PawaPay
B2B vendor payments and payroll, Nigeria	Duplo
Marketplace payouts in Kenya, with published pricing	IntaSend
Cross-border payouts from NGN to international	Grey or Juicyway
Crypto or stablecoin disbursements, Nigeria	Busha
Francophone West Africa (Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire)	Wave Business API
Ghana multi-operator coverage	Theteller (PaySwitch)
Tanzania multi-operator coverage	ClickPesa
Full-stack: collections + payouts + FX, Nigeria	Fincra
AI agent needs payment tools without custom integration	ChiaSDK MCP

Browse the complete set at wycord.com/apis or filter by country at wycord.com/countries.