Take payments in Africa with Paystack and M-Pesa

Many members in Africa don’t pay by card. Paystack and M-Pesa let them pay you the way they already pay for everything else: a bank transfer, a USSD code, mobile money, or a prompt on their phone.

You use your own account with Paystack or Safaricom, and the money goes straight to it. Yclas doesn’t take a cut. You can connect one, both, or either alongside Stripe and PayPal: members choose at checkout.

What they can be used for

Both gateways take payments to you, the site owner:

• featured listings and bring to top,
• pay to post,
• membership plans,
• eWallet top-ups,
• and the other extras you sell (boosts, renewals, badges and so on).

They are not offered for sales between members (Buy Now, offers, auctions or the shopping cart), not even when you collect payments for your sellers. Those need a method that can pay sellers: see Let members sell with Buy Now.

A membership plan paid with Paystack or M-Pesa doesn’t renew by itself: when it ends, the member gets an email with a link to pay again. See Renewals.

Paystack

Paystack works in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Buyers click Pay with Paystack at checkout and pay on Paystack’s checkout page, with whichever methods your Paystack account offers: card, bank transfer, USSD or mobile money. Then they come back to your site.

What you need from Paystack

• A Paystack business account in your country.
• Your Secret Key, from the API keys section of your Paystack dashboard. Paystack gives you a test key (sk_test_…) and, once your business is approved, a live key (sk_live_…).
• Your site’s currency must be one Paystack charges in and that is switched on for your account: NGN, GHS, KES, ZAR or USD. Set it in Settings › Payments (see Currency and price format). For any other currency the Paystack button doesn’t appear.

Set up Paystack

1. In your admin panel, go to Add-ons, open the Payments tab and click Paystack.
2. Paste your key in Secret Key.
3. Click Save.
4. Copy the address in Webhook URL (click the box to select it). It looks like https://yourdomain.com/paystack/webhook/1.
5. In your Paystack dashboard, in the API keys and webhooks settings, paste it as your webhook URL and save.

Setting	What it does
Secret Key	The key that lets your site create payments in your Paystack account and check them. A test key (sk_test_…) takes test payments; a live key takes real ones.
Webhook URL	Read only. The address Paystack tells when a payment completes. Paste it into your Paystack dashboard.

Why the webhook matters. Some payments, such as bank transfers, finish after the buyer has left Paystack’s page. Without the webhook those orders stay unpaid on your site even though the money arrived. With it, Paystack tells your site and the order is confirmed by itself.

A Paystack account has only one webhook URL. If you run more than one site, use a separate Paystack account for each.

Test mode

Paystack has no separate switch: the key decides. Save your test Secret Key and pay with one of Paystack’s test cards. While a test key is saved, the page warns: This is a test key: Paystack’s test cards will pay real orders on your site. Use your live Secret Key once you have finished testing.

That warning is meant literally: a test payment marks the order as paid and gives the member what they bought. Swap in your live key before you tell your members.

What buyers see

1. At checkout they click Pay with Paystack.
2. They pay on Paystack’s page. A cancel link there brings them back to your checkout.
3. They return to your site’s payment-complete page, and what they bought is applied straight away.

If the payment is still going through (for example a bank transfer), they see Your payment is being processed. We will confirm your order as soon as it completes. The order is confirmed when Paystack calls your webhook. If the payment failed they see Transaction not successful! and can try again.

M-Pesa

M-Pesa uses Safaricom’s Lipa na M-Pesa Online (M-Pesa Express, also called STK Push). There is no payment page to visit: the buyer types their phone number at checkout, gets a prompt on their phone, and enters their M-Pesa PIN. The checkout page waits and moves on by itself once the payment is through.

M-Pesa charges Kenyan shillings only. The button appears only when your site’s currency is KES.

What you need from Safaricom

• An M-Pesa Paybill or Till (Buy Goods) number for your business.
• An app on the Safaricom Daraja portal (developer.safaricom.co.ke) with M-Pesa Express, taken live for your Paybill or Till. Safaricom handles going live; it can take a few days.
• From Daraja: the app’s Consumer Key and Consumer Secret, your Business Shortcode and the Lipa na M-Pesa Online Passkey Safaricom sends you when you go live.

You don’t need to give Safaricom any address from your site: each payment request tells Safaricom where to send the result.

Set up M-Pesa

1. Go to Add-ons, open the Payments tab and click M-Pesa.
2. Fill in the fields below.
3. To try it first, tick Sandbox and use the keys of your Daraja test app.
4. Click Save.

Setting	What it does
Consumer Key	From your Daraja app.
Consumer Secret	From your Daraja app.
Business Shortcode	Your Paybill number, or for a Till the store number (head office) it belongs to.
Passkey	The Lipa na M-Pesa Online passkey Safaricom sent you when you went live.
Till number (Buy Goods)	Only for a Till: buyers pay this Till. Leave it empty for a Paybill, where the order number is the account number.
Sandbox	Uses Safaricom’s sandbox with your Daraja test app, so no real money is charged. Turn it off to accept real payments.

The first four fields are all needed: until they are filled in, the M-Pesa button doesn’t appear. With a Paybill, the account reference on the buyer’s M-Pesa message is the order number, for example Order 1234.

If the page says M-Pesa is not available on your site yet: it is being updated, you can still save your keys. Buyers see M-Pesa as soon as the update is done.

What buyers see

1. At checkout, under M-Pesa phone number, they type their number (for example 0712345678). Signed-in members who have a phone number on their profile find it filled in.
2. They click Pay with M-Pesa and see Check your phone and enter your M-Pesa PIN to pay.
3. They enter their PIN on the prompt on their phone.
4. The checkout page checks every few seconds and, once the payment is confirmed, moves to the payment-complete page.

Numbers can be typed as 0712 345 678, +254712345678 or 712345678; only Kenyan mobile numbers are accepted. M-Pesa charges whole shillings, so an amount with cents is rounded up to the next shilling.

If the buyer cancels on their phone or the prompt times out, they see The M-Pesa payment was not completed. You can try again.

Limits that protect your members

A payment prompt rings someone’s phone, so M-Pesa is careful about who can send one:

• Only the buyer can pay their order: the signed-in member who made it, an admin, or a visitor who isn’t signed in, for one hour after making the order, from the same browser. Anyone else doesn’t see the phone field. A visitor who tries after that hour is asked Please log in to pay this order.
• One prompt per order per minute (A payment request was just sent. Please check your phone, or try again in a minute.), and at most 5 prompts per phone number and 10 per internet connection each hour (Too many payment requests. Please try again later or use another payment method.).

Phone numbers typed at checkout aren’t stored.

Refunds and double payments

Neither gateway refunds from your admin panel. To give money back:

1. Refund the payment in your Paystack dashboard, or through M-Pesa for your Paybill or Till.
2. In Orders, open the order’s menu and click Mark as refunded. This takes back what the order gave (for example the featured days).

See Refunds and cancellations.

If a buyer pays the same order twice (say, with Paystack and then another method), the second payment doesn’t apply the order again. Your site emails the address in Sender email (Settings › Email) with the subject Paystack: an extra payment for order #… (or M-Pesa: …), so you can check it in your dashboard and refund it.

Before you go live

These gateways are new on Yclas. Before you tell your members:

• Test the whole flow in test mode, signed in as an ordinary member: Paystack with your test key, M-Pesa with Sandbox ticked. Try M-Pesa on a real phone.
• Check that the order shows as Paid in Orders and that the listing changed.
• Switch to your live key, or untick Sandbox, and make one small real payment.

Related guides

• Take payments on your marketplace — what members can pay for and how to test.
• Other payment gateways — every other regional provider, including PayFast for South Africa.
• Currency and price format — set NGN, GHS, KES, ZAR or USD.
• Orders and refunds — find a payment and mark it refunded.
• Accept crypto with CoinGate — another way to pay where cards are rare.