BloombergBusiness & Economy · February 2024
Nigeria's Naira Slumps to Record Low Against the Dollar
The Central Bank allowed the exchange rate to float freely in a single session, sending the naira toward ₦1,600 per dollar. Companies that had built their African operations around a stable rate found themselves repricing everything overnight.
BloombergAfrica Business · March 2024
P&G, Unilever Bet on Nigeria Backfires as Naira Plunges
Procter & Gamble closed its Nigerian manufacturing operations and shifted to an import model, citing the difficulty of operating as a dollar-denominated organisation in a naira-denominated market. The customers remained. The economics did not.
NairametricsCorporate Earnings · February 2025
Nestlé Nigeria reports N221 billion loss before tax in 2024 despite 75.2% revenue growth
Net FX losses of ₦290.7 billion erased what would have been a record year. Across ten listed companies, FX losses reached ₦2.17 trillion as revenue rose 64%. Transactions were rising. Retained value was not.
LaunchBase AfricaPayments & Fintech · November 2024
dLocal's Nigeria Business Takes a Hit as Revenue Falls by Over 80%
The largest listed cross-border payments company in emerging markets watched Nigerian revenue collapse while transaction volumes held steady. The currency moved. The demand did not.
Startbutton CasestudyFintech & Payments · March 2025
Talk360 goes live in Kenya within a month after PSP collapse
The international calling app switched to a Merchant of Record after its Kenyan payment provider shut down overnight. It was processing transactions within a month.
The opportunity is inNigeria.
The right infrastructure determines who gets it.
State of Merchant of Record in Africa 2026
96.85% — local MoR routing
25–40% — cross-border routing*
*Source: State of MoR in Africa 2025, Startbutton

96.85%

96.85%

Average approval rate via local MoR routing, across 1.9M+ transactions

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RECOVERED VIA LOCAL ROUTING
Up to $2.4M
LOST VIA INTERNATIONAL ROUTING
Up to 236K txns
Up to 236,000 transactions recovered in Nigeria via local MoR routing that would have failed via international processing (modelled).

Up to $2.4M

Up to $2.4M

Up to $2.4M in revenue recovered through local MoR infrastructure in Nigeria that would have been lost via international routing (modelled).

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GHS/USD · Sep 1–7, 2025 · +9.87% in 7 days

9.87%

9.87%

The GHS/USD rate rose 9.87% in one week, an 8.99% loss in dollar value for cedi holdings.

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From the report

Talk360 built their own African payment stack for six years. Then they stopped.

Talk360 built their own African payment stack for six years. Then they stopped.

Talk360 built their own African payment stack for six years. Then they stopped.

Talk360 lets anyone call a regular phone number without the recipient needing internet. By 2022, it had customers across Africa and a payment problem to match: ATM integrations in Nigeria, M-PESA in Kenya, voucher systems in South Africa — more payment methods to manage than customers to serve.

When their Kenyan PSP shut down overnight, Talk360 needed a replacement fast. They were live with Startbutton within a month. Startbutton now handles local payment collection and tax compliance in Kenya and Nigeria.

<1 month

To go live in Kenya after PSP shutdown

$500K

Estimated annual cost of doing it in-house

6M+

People connected in 2025, up from 2.3M

“

If you add the potential missed opportunity, the cost of maintaining the asset, plus the coordination cost, then you’re talking, for a company like us, around $500,000 per year.

If you add the potential missed opportunity, the cost of maintaining the asset, plus the coordination cost, then you’re talking, for a company like us, around $500,000 per year.

Hans Osnabrugge

Co-Founder and CEO, Talk360

Where your payments succeed

Where your payments succeed and why the gap is structural

Where your payments succeed and why the gap is structural

Approval rates by market via local Merchant of Record routing, August 2025 to July 2026.

Nigeria
99.45%
Virtual account bank transfer · 1,190,170 txns
99.45%
Rwanda
97.77%
Bank transfer · 21,668 txns
97.77%
Tanzania
96.23%
Mobile money / bank transfer · 17,087 txns
96.23%
Uganda
95.7%
Mobile money · 89,407 txns
95.7%
Ghana
88.16%
Mobile money / card · 392,395 txns
88.16%
Kenya
85.46%
Mobile money / card · 233,684 txns
85.46%
South Africa
Card · 45,005 txns
68.9%
Approval rate = (successful + verified) ÷ (successful + verified + failed). Startbutton proprietary data, 200+ merchants, August 2025 – July 2026. 96.85% is the average approval rate across all 16 Startbutton markets; seven are shown here.

The cost of waiting

How often your currency moves while you wait, by market

How often your currency moves while you wait, by market

Percentage of seven-day settlement windows in which the exchange rate moved more than 1%, by market. August 2025 to July 2026.

GHS
59.8%
ZAR
44.8%
UGX
43.9%
TZS
42.9%
NGN
30.5%
RWF
11.3%
KES
0%
Windows where rate moved >1%
Hover a bar for full detail

Inside the report

What 200+ merchants across 15+ markets taught us

What 200+ merchants across 15+ markets taught us

01

The FX gap

Why merchants collecting in naira, cedis, and shillings are losing revenue before it reaches the bank — and what local settlement actually changes.

01

The FX gap

Why merchants collecting in naira, cedis, and shillings are losing revenue before it reaches the bank — and what local settlement actually changes.

02

The decline problem

How international payment routing excludes the majority of buyers in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana before a single transaction is attempted.

02

The decline problem

How international payment routing excludes the majority of buyers in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana before a single transaction is attempted.

03

The cost of waiting

What seven days of correspondent banking does to a $119,427 position when the cedi moves 9.87% in a week.

03

The cost of waiting

What seven days of correspondent banking does to a $119,427 position when the cedi moves 9.87% in a week.

04

The compliance window

Nigeria’s NRS, Kenya’s KRA, and South Africa’s SARS are building real-time transaction visibility. The grey zone is closing.

04

The compliance window

Nigeria’s NRS, Kenya’s KRA, and South Africa’s SARS are building real-time transaction visibility. The grey zone is closing.

05

The 2030 case

The operators who built compliance infrastructure from the start. An operator and an investor tell the story here.

05

The 2030 case

The operators who built compliance infrastructure from the start. An operator and an investor tell the story here.

06

The market scorecard

Seven markets on one page: how each one pays, how far its currency moves, where it stands on tax, and what that means for your entry plan.

The operating model

Two models. Six metrics. One clear winner.

Two models. Six metrics. One clear winner.

What it costs to run your own entity and PSP stack in each market, compared with a single Merchant of Record relationship.

Component

PSP + entity model

Startbutton + MoR MODEL

FX loss as % of revenue

3–15% via parallel market premium, Nigeria

2–3% via local settlement

Entity & compliance cost per market

$4,000–$21,000 in Year 1, before staffing

Included in MoR fee

Local payment method access

Verve, M-PESA, and MTN MoMo require local infrastructure to process

Full market via local acquiring

Approval rate

Materially lower than local routing

96.85% across 1.9M+ transactions

Revenue lost to the approval gap (Nigeria)

Up to 20 pp lower conversion via international routing

Up to ~$2.4M recovered across 12 months (modelled)

Time to first transaction in a new market

6–18 months

14 days

200+ merchants. 15+ African markets. 12 months of transaction data. One report.

200+ merchants. 15+ African markets. 12 months of transaction data. One report.

Download the 2026 report

As featured in

TechCabal

Treasury behaviour

Merchants have stopped waiting for month-end

Merchants have stopped waiting for month-end

Share of merchants converting local-currency balances weekly or faster, tracked month by month across the 9-month dataset.
Source: Startbutton treasury data

“That ability to focus on your core by having the right partners arranging the other things, that is crucial if you want to speed up.”

Hans Osnabrugge

Co-Founder and CEO, Talk360

“There’s real education to do, real thought leadership needed, to make the case that this is something you can actually use, and it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to do it.”

Luzana Costa

Partner, Norrsken Africa Seed Fund

“96.85% average payment approval rate via local MoR routing, across more than 1.9 million transactions. August 2025 to July 2026.”

Startbutton transaction data

200+ merchants, 15+ markets

Cover of The State of Merchant of Record in Africa 2026 report by Startbutton
Cover of The State of Merchant of Record in Africa 2026 report by Startbutton

Stop losing revenue you already earned

Stop losing revenue you already earned

Stop losing revenue you already earned

The 2026 report brings together 12 months of transaction data from 200+ merchants across 15+ African markets. Get approval rates by market, FX exposure by settlement window, and what the new compliance regimes mean for cross-border revenue.

Fill in the form and we’ll send the full report straight to your inbox.

Get the full report

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Get the full report

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© 2026 Startbutton. Pan-African Merchant of Record.