5 min read

Your Customers Are Already on WhatsApp. Now They Can Pay You There Too.

Editorial illustration of a Lagos shop owner holding a glowing smartphone with payment confirmation in WhatsApp while a satisfied customer stands across the counter
Illustration by HotKiosk

Payaza Africa has launched a new feature called Chat & Pay, letting Nigerian businesses receive payments directly inside WhatsApp. If your customers already send you orders on WhatsApp, this removes the extra step of asking them to transfer money separately.

The Problem It Solves

Most Nigerian small businesses already use WhatsApp to communicate with customers. Orders come in via chat, questions get answered there, and buyers check on delivery times through the same app.

But when payment time comes, things break down. Customers have to switch to a banking app, find your account number, make the transfer, take a screenshot, and send it back. You then have to check your account manually before releasing the goods.

This creates delays. It also creates room for fake payment screenshots, a common problem in Nigerian informal trade where fraudsters send forged bank alerts to collect goods before payment actually clears. And it costs sales, because some customers drop off when the checkout process gets complicated.

This friction is the gap Chat & Pay is built to close.

What Is Chat & Pay?

Chat & Pay is a new product from Payaza Africa Limited, a Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed payment service provider. It was announced on April 14, 2026 and reported independently by TechCabal, ThisDay Live, Channels TV, and TechAfrica News.

The feature gives a business a dedicated WhatsApp number. When a customer is ready to pay, the checkout happens inside that same WhatsApp conversation. No switching apps. No waiting for a screenshot. No manual confirmation.

Payaza describes it as an "automated checkout flow." The customer is guided through the payment steps within the chat itself. Once done, the shop owner gets a real-time notification that the money has cleared.

At the same event, Payaza also unveiled Shopaza, a storefront tool for businesses that want a simple online shop page. The two products are designed to work together, but Chat & Pay can be used on its own.

How It Works

For the shop owner, setup involves linking a Payaza merchant account to a dedicated WhatsApp Business number. Payaza runs the payment infrastructure on the back end.

For the customer, the experience looks like a normal WhatsApp conversation. They receive a payment prompt in chat, enter their card or mobile money details through the secured flow, and get a confirmation message when done.

The shop owner receives a verified, real-time payment notification — not a screenshot. This removes the need to manually check bank apps before releasing an order.

What about fraud?

Fake payment alerts are a real problem for Nigerian traders. A customer sends a doctored screenshot of a bank transfer that never happened. Goods go out. The fraud is discovered hours later.

Payaza says Chat & Pay addresses this by automating verification on their end. Payment confirmation only goes out when the money has actually moved. The shop owner does not need to verify anything manually.

Who Is Payaza?

Payaza Africa Limited is a Nigerian fintech licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria as a payment service provider. It has been operating in Nigeria's payments space and competes with other merchant payment providers in the market.

In April 2026, the company announced double ratings from two financial compliance bodies, which it says demonstrates its regulatory standing and service reliability. Chat & Pay and Shopaza are its newest products, aimed specifically at small and growing businesses.

The company is not as large as Moniepoint or Flutterwave. But its Chat & Pay product addresses a very specific gap that bigger platforms have not yet filled: native payment within WhatsApp conversations.

Why This Matters

Nigeria has roughly 51 million WhatsApp users. That is around 95% of internet users in the country. For a large share of small businesses, WhatsApp is the primary customer channel. There is no website, no formal online shop, and no POS terminal for remote sales. WhatsApp is everything.

Customers browse products shared in broadcast lists or status updates. They message directly with questions. They place orders in private chats. All of this happens inside WhatsApp, and then payment shifts somewhere else.

That gap between "customer sends an order" and "seller gets paid" is where most of the friction lives. It is also where many small disputes happen: delayed confirmations, wrong amounts sent, accidental payments to wrong accounts, and fake alerts.

A payment tool built directly into WhatsApp reduces all of this. The customer never leaves the conversation. The seller gets a confirmed payment before releasing anything. And the whole interaction lives in one place, which makes it easy to review later if there is a dispute.

Businesses that reduce the steps between "customer says yes" and "money arrives" close more sales and spend less time chasing payments.

This matters most for businesses that sell primarily through direct chat: tailors, food vendors, electronics resellers, spare parts dealers, fashion sellers, beauty product suppliers, and anyone who runs their sales through personal or group conversations rather than a physical till.

It also matters for delivery businesses. When a rider drops off an order and the customer needs to pay on the spot, sharing a WhatsApp payment link inside the existing chat thread is faster and simpler than switching to a payment app or handling cash.

Conclusion

Chat & Pay is a new product and it will take time to see how widely Nigerian businesses adopt it. But the direction it points to is real: payments are moving into the same apps where conversations already happen, and WhatsApp is the biggest one in Nigeria.

If you already sell on WhatsApp and still rely on manual bank transfers for payment, it is worth looking into whether Chat & Pay or similar tools can replace that process. Fewer manual steps means faster sales, less fraud risk, and less time spent chasing confirmations.

Sources

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