- Zone, a payment infrastructure company in Africa, has launched a blockchain-powered PoS payment gateway product built on its payment infrastructure.
- According to the company, introducing this latest product aligns with its payment goals across multiple channels, following the success of its ATM transaction processing service.
- Zone's PoS payment gateway product is expected to enable banks and fintechs that deploy PoS payment terminals to facilitate payments. The product would allow direct routing of transactions to issuers.
Zone stated that it connects acquirers directly to issuers through its decentralised payment switching network for increased speed and reliability of transactions.
As a CBN-licensed payment switch, Zone can implement direct transaction routing to issuers without violating regulatory guidelines on inter-bank payments, the company noted.
The company focused on building banking infrastructure, rebranded from AppZone to Zone to pivot towards blockchain payments. It also raised $8.5 million three months ago in an oversubscribed seed funding round.
Zone’s move into the PoS market comes as Nigeria's regulator tightens the environment for PoS agents. In May 2024, following a directive by the federal government, PoS operators must register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to reduce fraud and encourage transparency. This directive requires all of Nigeria’s 1.9 million PoS agents to comply before 7 July 2024.
Zone’s payment gateway plans to improve PoS transactions by enabling same-day settlement for beneficiaries and their financial institutions. It also aims to eliminate chargebacks and chargeback fraud.
It does this by “auto-refunding customers for unsuccessful transactions and auto-declining fraudulent chargebacks in real-time,” Zone said.
Commenting on the launch, Obi Emetarom, CEO and Co-founder of Zone, said, "Our PoS payment gateway product is a commitment to financial inclusion and to the digital future of all payments in Africa.
“With this new offering, we are excited to have taken yet another major step towards our vision for a world where individuals and businesses can make and receive instant payments to and from anyone in the world, through any payment method and in any currency."
While Zone has extended its blockchain infrastructure for financial companies to work for PoS, they are not the only payment infrastructure offering PoS payment gateways; others include Interswitch, Unified Payments, and eTranzact.
Written by Omoruyi Edoigiawerie, a seasoned startup attorney with over a decade of experience. Learn more.
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However, Zone stated, “These other PoS payment gateway providers use a centralised architecture to process payments for their financial service providers, which is riddled with issues of reliability and friction.
“The financial service providers using their infrastructure inherit these inefficiencies. But Zone has launched a first-of-its-kind product using a decentralised architecture powered by blockchain technology.”
