1 Best APIs for Bulk Payment Processing in Nigeria

AZA Finance is a pan-African payments and foreign exchange infrastructure company that enables businesses and fintechs to send, receive, and convert money across Africa and globally through a single API. Originally founded as BitPesa in Nairobi in 2013, AZA Finance has evolved into one of Africa's most established cross-border payment platforms, holding regulatory licenses from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Bank of Uganda — a rare multi-jurisdictional licensing achievement in African fintech. What the API Does The AZA Finance API, documented at docs.azafinance.com and accessed via the developer portal at developers.transferzero.com, enables developers to programmatically initiate and manage cross-border payments across 30+ currencies and 115+ markets. Core capabilities include: sending payouts to bank accounts, mobile money wallets (M-Pesa, MTN Mobile Money, Airtel), and cash pickup points; real-time FX conversion between African and major global currencies; bulk payment processing for high-volume disbursements; account validation before sending; and webhook callbacks for real-time transaction status updates. How Developers Use It Developers integrate by creating an account at developers.transferzero.com. Authentication is via API Key and Secret issued from the portal. AZA Finance provides official SDKs for .NET, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby, significantly reducing integration time. The typical flow involves: creating a sender (KYC-verified entity), creating recipients (beneficiaries with bank or wallet details), initiating a transaction specifying corridors and currencies, and listening for webhook callbacks for status updates (pending, processing, paid, cancelled). The API supports test transactions in sandbox mode before going live. Supported Currencies and Countries AZA Finance supports 30+ currencies including NGN (Nigeria), GHS (Ghana), KES (Kenya), UGX (Uganda), TZS (Tanzania), ZAR (South Africa), XOF/XAF (CFA franc zones), MZN (Mozambique), USD, EUR, GBP, AED, CNY, and more. Nigeria is fully supported with CBN licensing in place. Pricing AZA Finance does not publish a public fee schedule. Pricing is determined by enterprise contract and depends on volume, corridor, and currency pair. The FX spread is embedded in the exchange rate offered. There is no self-serve free tier — you must contact their sales team to negotiate a contract. A sandbox environment is available for technical integration and testing at no cost. Authentication API authentication uses a Key + Secret pair obtained from the developer portal at developers.transferzero.com. Requests are signed with the secret to create an authorization header. The portal also supports role-based access controls for team members. Rate Limits AZA Finance operates on enterprise SLAs. Specific rate limit figures are not published publicly — they are determined by agreement. The platform maintains a 99.5% uptime guarantee. Compliance and Regulations AZA Finance is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, making it one of the few Africa-focused payment APIs with direct CBN authorization. It also holds FCA authorization in the UK and Bank of Uganda licensing. The platform is PCI-DSS compliant and certified to ISO27001:2022 for information security management. All transactions undergo AML screening and compliance monitoring 24/7. Challenges and Gotchas Key limitations for Nigerian developers: (1) AZA Finance is B2B only — it is not designed for consumer checkout flows. (2) Pricing is opaque — you cannot estimate costs without contacting sales. (3) KYC onboarding can be lengthy for enterprise clients. (4) The developer portal still uses "TransferZero" branding from the previous product name — this can confuse developers unfamiliar with the company history. (5) No USSD or card payment support — AZA Finance is purely for push-payment corridors. Company Background AZA Finance was founded in 2013 as BitPesa, a Bitcoin-based remittance platform for Kenya. It later pivoted away from crypto, rebranded as TransferZero, and finally as AZA Finance in 2020. The company is headquartered in Nairobi with offices in Lagos, London, Madrid, Luxembourg, and Dakar. It has processed over $3 billion in transactions and serves major clients including global remittance firms and banks. FAQs Q: Can a Nigerian startup use AZA Finance without CBN licensing? A: Yes. AZA Finance holds the CBN license on your behalf — you access their infrastructure without needing your own license. However, you must sign a partner agreement and pass their KYC checks. Q: Is there a sandbox for testing? A: Yes. Developers can test at developers.transferzero.com in sandbox mode before production. Q: Does AZA Finance support NGN? A: Yes. Nigerian Naira (NGN) is a core supported currency with payouts to all major Nigerian banks. Q: Is AZA Finance suitable for consumer apps? A: No. AZA Finance is built for B2B use — enterprises, fintechs, and money transfer operators. It does not offer a consumer-facing checkout widget or SDK.