The "Black Hole" of African Payments: Why One PSP is Never Enough | Jonatan Allback
Description
Why do 30% of transactions in South Africa fail? And more importantly, why do merchants often get nothing but a generic error message when it happens?
Jonatan Allback, CEO of Njiapay, joins Samora Kariuki to deconstruct the "black hole" of African payments.
The conversation starts with the origin story of Njiapay, originally built as an internal tool to fix low conversion rates for the calling app Talk360. Jonatan breaks down the technical reality of the African payments stack, explaining why "orchestration" isn't just a buzzword, it’s the only way for mid-market companies to navigate the fragmented landscape of gateways, processors, and banks.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
The 20% Revenue Gap: Why African authorization rates lag behind the global average and how to fix it.
The "Waiter" Analogy: A clear definition of the difference between a Gateway, a Processor, and an Acquiring Bank.
The Talk360 Pivot: How a consumer app turned their biggest operational headache into a B2B fintech solution.
Orchestration 101: Why relying on a single PSP (like Paystack or Peach) often isn't enough for scaling companies.
The Fragmentation Trap: Why "Full Stack" control is nearly impossible in Africa, and how to navigate the alternative.
United States
