FINTECH AFRICA | Nigerian Blockchain Fintech, Zone, Has Processed Over ₦1 Trillion (Over $600 Million) in Transaction Value in Just 2 Years, Says CEO

Zone is the only blockchain financial institution licensed to provide switching and processing services in Nigeria. It automates settlement, reconciliation, and dispute management, with more than 15 of Africa’s leading banks and fintechs said to be utilizing its network for payments processing.

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Nigerian payments infrastructure company, Zone, has facilitated transactions exceeding ₦1 trillion ($660 million) on its blockchain network between November 2022 and December 2024, according to CEO, Obi Emetarom.

Zone is the only blockchain financial institution licensed to provide switching and processing services in Nigeria. It runs a layer 1 blockchain network that enables direct transaction flow between financial service providers without an intermediary.


Zone automates settlement, reconciliation, and dispute management, with more than 15 of Africa’s leading banks and fintechs said to be utilizing its network for payments processing.

According to Emetarom, the company recorded 100 million transactions, with an average value of ₦10,000 ($6.60) per transaction in the aforementioned period. Although blockchain adoption in banking is still limited, the majority of these transactions were conducted through automated teller machines (ATMs), marking the first large-scale implementation of blockchain-powered payments in Nigeria.

This achievement comes despite a decline in ATM usage. Over the past three years, ATM transaction values have dropped from ₦32.65 trillion ($21.5 billion) in 2022 to ₦28.2 trillion ($18.6 billion) in 2023, as more customers opt for Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals and digital payments.

 

While twelve banks currently utilize Zone’s blockchain network, only a few leverage the technology for processing ATM transactions.

“If there was wider adoption of ATMs, [reaching ₦1 trillion in transactions] would have been faster,” said Obi Emetarom, Zone CEO and Co-Founder.

“We used the ATM as a pilot to [introduce something new]. We didn’t want to start loading our system with heavy transactions, so we chose a transaction type that is manageable to build a credible system.”

 

While Zone’s network, ZonePoS, which allows them to process POS payments using blockchain technology, enables these banks to achieve faster settlement rates for ATM transactions, others participate for a different reason.

Zone first implemented its blockchain technology in automated teller machines (ATMs) before creating a module within its layer-1 blockchain system to accommodate POS payments.

As reported by BitKE, ZonePOS, was launched in June 2024. The ‘ZonePOS’ point-of-sale payment gateway solution is billed as a comprehensive payment processing solution to banks and fintechs that deploy PoS payment terminals.


According to Emetarom, Zone’s Layer-1 blockchain can handle 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) ‘right out of the box.’ After witnessing its success with ATMs and the rise in POS transactions, Zone expanded its blockchain network to support terminal payments.

See also

In August 2024, Zone announced a partnership with the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS) to introduce blockchain technology to Point-of-sale (POS) terminal payments. While this is still in rollout, the partnership means banks and fintechs will be able to perform card routing between POS terminals and cardholder banks while remaining fully compliant with both payment switching and PTSA regulations as defined by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

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