Paystack has acquired Nigerian card-issuing fintech Allawee, in a deal that took place in 2025 but was never publicly announced. As Allawee's technology is folded into Paystack's expanding financial services, the company is preparing to discontinue its account and card offerings. Paystack, acquired by Stripe in 2020, has been one of Nigeria's most prominent payments companies, and the move signals how it is pushing deeper into financial infrastructure beyond its core payment-processing business.

Customers have been notified by email that all business and personal account services will cease on December 1, 2026. After that deadline, payments made to Allawee account numbers will fail, and Allawee cards will stop working regardless of their expiry dates. Customers are advised to withdraw their balances by November 30, update their banking details for incoming payments, and replace Allawee card information linked to subscriptions.

The transition goes beyond a simple account transfer. Business customers will be directed to Paystack Microfinance Bank, while individual customers will move to Zap, Paystack's consumer transfer app. Because previous Allawee account numbers, transaction histories, balances, and verification details will not be carried over, customers will need to set up entirely new accounts.

Allawee has assured customers that their funds remain safe and will not expire. However, anyone who leaves money in an Allawee account beyond the deadline will need to contact Paystack MFB for a manual payout, which may take longer than expected. Customers using Allawee cards for subscriptions must also update their payment details before the deadline.

Neither Paystack nor Allawee has commented on the acquisition.

Allawee was founded in 2022 by Ikenna Enenwali and Oreofe Olurin, launching initially as a credit-card lender before evolving into a technology provider that enables fintechs and businesses to issue cards more quickly. By 2025, Allawee was supplying card infrastructure to companies including PiggyVest, Nomba, and Carbon, significantly accelerating the launch of their card programs. It also offered business accounts through Providus Bank and introduced a Mastercard credit card for federal civil servants and NYSC members.

With the acquisition, that card infrastructure now belongs to Paystack, which gains technology that would otherwise have taken years to build in-house. The wind-down of Allawee's own branded accounts also means its former business-account customers will need to re-establish banking relationships, an operational disruption that often accompanies acqui-absorptions in fintech.

The deal reflects a broader trend among Nigerian fintech companies of acquiring other businesses to expand beyond their original focus. Paystack itself acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank in January, securing a banking license, and merged Brass—a business banking startup it helped rescue in 2024—into its operations. Flutterwave, similarly, acquired open banking company Mono to strengthen its capabilities beyond payment processing.

This shift marks a wider change in Nigeria's fintech landscape. During the funding boom of 2020 to 2022, many companies built overlapping products across payments, banking, and financial infrastructure. With funding now scarcer and regulation stricter, buying existing technology and licenses has become a more efficient growth path than building from the ground up.

For Paystack, acquiring Allawee is about more than shutting down another fintech brand—it is about integrating new infrastructure as the company expands from payments into a broader range of financial services. What remains to be seen is how Paystack deploys Allawee's card-issuing technology for its own merchant base, and whether other Allawee infrastructure clients migrate to the newly acquired platform.