WHAT IS A PAYMENT GATEWAY

A payment gateway is an online service that authorizes and processes debit/credit card or paypal payements for online marchants and businesses.

According to wikipedia, A payment gateway is a merchant service provided by an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes credit card or direct payments processing for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. The payment gateway may be provided by a bank to its customers, but can be provided by a specialised financial service provider as a separate service, such as a payment service provider.

A payment gateway facilitates a payment transaction by the transfer of information between a payment portal (such as a website, mobile phone or interactive voice response service) and the front end processor or acquiring bank.

check wikipedia for more information

DETAILED LIST OF THE TOP 10 PAYMENT GATEWAYS IN NIGERIA

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN CHOOSING THE BEST PAYMENT GATEWAY PROVIDERS IN NIGERIA

Choosing the best payment gateway provider for your e-Commerce platform is alaways a difficult process. While choosing, you should ensure that customer payment experience is smooth, fast and secure. This will help to increase trust among the customers and ensure that they come back to purchase other products or services in the future.

Here are six factors to consider before selecting the payment gateway:

1. Government Regulations: Payment gateway providers must adhere to the regulations imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria which actively provides regulations through circulars to govern the activities of all players in the industry. Government has developed a variety of new secure payment schemes for gateway providers as consumers are becoming more aware of their security and privacy.
2. Payment And Customer Support: Choose a payment gateway that is beyond payments. Simply put, the provider must offer reliable 24*7 customer support and quick turnaround time while delivering business solutions to measure and improve merchant’s growth. Gateway providers such as Paystack, Flutterwave etc. have modern, frictionless, painless payment environments with live user support.
3. Multi-Currency And International Usage: If you are looking to target a foreign customer base, pick a provider that allows customers to pay in their local currencies. There are quite a few gateways in Nigeria that support both multi currency and cross currency conversions. 2Checkout, Paypal, Flutterwave, DuduPay, Amplify etc. gives merchants flexible currency options.
4. Mobile App And CMS Support: Some payment gateway providers offer mobile SDKs along with other options so that merchants can integrate their payment processing system into iOS and Android apps too. A few gateways also have a dedicated app for merchants with features such as on the go status, live tracking, dashboard management among other useful features.
5. Safety & Security Features: The gateway provider needs to be PCI service provider level 1 certified. Audit certification is an added layer of security. Advanced fraud detection mechanisms must be deployed including both automatic and manual fraud systems to protect you from fraudulent transactions and associated chargeback claims. The transactions that happen over HTTPS using TLS 1.2 (SSL) are more secured.
6. Required Documentation: The Provider should have digital Merchant Onboarding which includes an Easy & faster onboarding process without cumbersome documents and red tape. A platform that is agile, supports 100% automated onboarding and offers various API integrations, SDKs and e-commerce platform integrations can be beneficial to specific merchants. The tedious, long, and inconvenient documentation process is just traditional.