Paystack Inc., the Stripe-owned Nigerian fintech giant, has formally stepped into Nigeria’s banking sector after acquiring Ladder Microfinance Bank.
This is a major shift for the company, which has spent more than a decade focused on payment processing, and now seeks greater control over funds flowing through its platform.
The acquisition strengthens Paystack’s push into consumer and business financial services by adding a banking layer to its payments infrastructure.
The newly rebranded Paystack Microfinance Bank (Paystack MFB) will initially target business lending before expanding to consumer services.
It will also provide banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and treasury management solutions for companies building financial products.
Why Paystack Made the Move
Paystack’s Chief Operating Officer, Amandine Lobelle, explained that the decision was driven by the evolving needs of businesses.
“After years of building payment infrastructure, we saw an opportunity to address broader financial pain points such as access to credit and cash management,” she said.
Paystack MFB will operate as a sister company to Paystack’s payments arm, with separate licences, governance, and operations.
Both entities will collaborate within regulatory limits under their US-based parent company.
This structure allows Paystack to experiment with lending and deposit products without the heavy compliance burden of a full commercial banking licence.
Strategic Impact
The microfinance bank enables Paystack to:
- Offer tailored banking services to its 300,000+ Nigerian business customers.
- Lower barriers for financial product creation.
- Move into higher-margin areas such as deposits and lending.
- Compete directly with traditional microfinance banks, digital lenders, and embedded finance platforms.
With Nigeria’s small business financing gap estimated at $32 billion, Paystack’s entry into banking signals a strategic shift from simply processing transactions to holding funds and deploying capital, leveraging real-time payment data to underwrite credit more efficiently at scale.
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