FAQ & Features Explained

• Mobile Money API: MTN MoMo, Orange Money, Airtel Money, M-Pesa, Wave, Moov
• Bank Transfers: Direct bank payments in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa
• Cards: Visa, Mastercard via partner gateways
• Digital Wallets: Opay, PalmPay, and others

• MTN MoMo API integration across 10+ countries
• M-Pesa API for Kenya and Tanzania
• Airtel Money API for pan-African coverage
• Wave Money integration for Senegal, Ivory Coast, and more

1. Create a Sandbox Account: Sign up at sandbox-app.payfonte.com
2. Get API Credentials: Navigate to Settings → API Keys/Webhooks in your dashboard
3. Set Up Webhooks: Configure your callback URL under Settings → API Keys/Webhooks
4. Test Your Integration: Use our sandbox environment to test transactions
5. Complete KYB: Submit documentation via our KYB form
6. Go Live: Once approved, switch to production credentials

• Certificate of Incorporation
• Memorandum & Articles of Association
• Board Resolution authorizing payment processing
• Valid ID of Directors/UBOs
• Proof of Business Address
• Bank Statement (last 3 months)

• Business Registration Certificate
• Valid Government ID
• Proof of Address
• Bank Statement

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STK Push (SIM Toolkit Push)

• How it works: A payment prompt is automatically “pushed” to the customer’s phone
• User experience: Customer sees a pop-up asking them to enter their PIN
• Supported by: M-Pesa API (Kenya, Tanzania), some MTN markets
• Pros: Seamless, no dialing required
• Cons: Requires phone to be on and have signal

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USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)

• How it works: Customer dials a code or receives a session-based menu
• User experience: Customer navigates menu and enters PIN
• Supported by: MTN MoMo API, Orange Money, Airtel Money API
• Pros: Works on basic phones, no data required
• Cons: More steps for customer

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Provider Authorization (Merchant-Initiated)

• How it works: Payment request sent directly via mobile money API, MNO prompts customer
• Supported by: Most alternative payment method providers in West Africa
• Pros: Consistent experience across channels

• Customer selects mobile money as payment method
• Enters their mobile money phone number
• Clicks “Pay”

• Customer receives an STK push notification OR USSD prompt on their phone
• The prompt shows: merchant name, amount, and reference
• Customer enters their mobile money PIN to authorize

• Customer sees “Payment Successful” on their phone
• Receives SMS confirmation from MNO
• Redirected back to merchant’s success page

1. Customer visits MNO app/USSD and generates a pre-authorization code
2. Customer provides this code to the merchant
3. Merchant includes preAuthorisationCode in the API request
4. Payment is processed without additional prompts

• Recurring payments
• Subscription services
• One-click checkout experiences

• Burkina Faso (Orange)
• Select other markets

1. Real-time monitoring: We track every transaction from initiation
2. Automatic polling: For pending transactions, we poll MNO status APIs
3. Statement reconciliation: We download and reconcile MNO statements
4. Timeout handling: Transactions that exceed timeout are marked appropriately
5. Callback retry: We retry webhook notifications until acknowledged

• Show user-friendly error messages
• Offer retry option for retriable errors
• Log all failed transactions for analysis
• Contact support for persistent SYSTEM_ERROR issues

1. Go to Dashboard → Settings → API Keys/Webhooks
2. Enter your webhook endpoint URL (e.g., https://yoursite.com/payfonte/webhook)
3. Click Save

• Must be publicly accessible (no localhost)
• Must use HTTPS (SSL certificate required)
• Must return HTTP 200 within 30 seconds
• Should be idempotent (handle duplicate calls)

{
  "event": "payment.completed",
  "timestamp": "2025-02-06T10:30:00Z",
  "data": {
    "reference": "ORDER-12345",
    "checkoutId": "chk_abc123xyz",
    "amount": 5000,
    "currency": "NGN",
    "country": "NG",
    "status": "success",
    "provider": "mtn-momo-nigeria",
    "channel": "mobile-money",
    "user": {
      "email": "customer@example.com",
      "phoneNumber": "08012345678"
    },
    "paidAt": "2025-02-06T10:30:00Z",
    "metadata": {
      "orderId": "your-custom-data"
    }
  }
}

• payment.completed - Payment successful
• payment.failed - Payment failed
• payment.expired - Payment timed out
• disbursement.completed - Disbursement successful
• disbursement.failed - Disbursement failed

• Attempt 1: Immediate
• Attempt 2: 1 minute later
• Attempt 3: 5 minutes later
• Attempt 4: 30 minutes later
• Attempt 5: 2 hours later
• Attempt 6: 12 hours later

• Transaction status is still updated in our system
• You can always query transaction status via API
• Check the webhook logs in your dashboard

• Mobile Money Wallets: Send to any supported MNO
• Bank Accounts: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and more
• Bulk Disbursements: Process multiple disbursements in one API call

1. Validate recipient (phone number or bank account)
2. Submit disbursement request
3. Receive webhook on completion

• Mobile Money: 30 seconds - 5 minutes
• Bank Transfer: Same day - Next business day

• Login to your merchant dashboard
• View balances on the home screen
• Breakdown by currency and country

curl --location 'https://api.payfonte.com/billing/v1/wallets' \
  --header 'client-id: YOUR_CLIENT_ID' \
  --header 'client-secret: YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET'

{
  "data": [
    { "currency": "NGN", "country": "NG", "balance": 1500000 },
    { "currency": "KES", "country": "KE", "balance": 85000 },
    { "currency": "XOF", "country": "CI", "balance": 2500000 }
  ]
}

• Plus sign (+)
• Spaces or dashes
• Leading zeros after country code

// ✅ Correct
{ "phoneNumber": "2348012345678" }

// ❌ Wrong
{ "phoneNumber": "+234-801-234-5678" }
{ "phoneNumber": "08012345678" }

• Server-to-server payments: When you’ve already collected customer details for mobile money API charges
• Recurring payments: Charging saved payment methods
• Mobile app integrations: Native mobile money integration Africa experiences

curl --location 'https://api.payfonte.com/payments/v1/payments/direct-charge' \
  --header 'client-id: YOUR_CLIENT_ID' \
  --header 'client-secret: YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "provider": "mtn-momo-nigeria",
    "amount": 5000,
    "reference": "ORDER-12345",
    "customerInput": {
      "phoneNumber": "2348012345678"
    },
    "webhook": "https://yoursite.com/webhook"
  }'

• You maintain direct contracts with MNOs (e.g., MTN MoMo API, M-Pesa API, Orange Money)
• You provide your API credentials to Payfonte
• We route transactions through your contracts using our smart payment routing Africa engine
• You keep your negotiated rates for each mobile money API

• Lower fees (your negotiated rates)
• Maintain provider relationships
• Combined coverage (your contracts + our partnerships)
• Single dashboard for all alternative payment methods (APM)
• Enterprise payment orchestration Africa capabilities

1. When a primary provider fails, we automatically try backup rails
2. Multi-PSP integration ensures multiple providers per country for redundancy
3. Real-time monitoring detects outages within seconds
4. Traffic is re-routed without merchant intervention

• Primary: MTN MoMo API direct integration
• Backup 1: MTN via aggregator
• Backup 2: Alternative mobile money payment aggregator route

• PCI DSS Level 1: Highest level of card data security
• Quarterly ASV Scans: External vulnerability assessments by certified consultants
• Annual Penetration Testing: Third-party security audits
• End-to-End Encryption: All data encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest
• Secure Tokenization: Card data tokenized for recurring payments

• GDPR-aligned practices: Even for non-EU data
• Data minimization: We only collect what’s necessary
• Encryption: All PII encrypted at rest and in transit
• Access controls: Role-based access with audit logging
• Retention policies: Data retained per regulatory requirements

• Phone numbers (for payment processing)
• Email addresses (for notifications)
• Transaction history (for reconciliation)

• Mobile money PINs
• Card CVVs (tokenized immediately)
• Customer wallet balances

• Velocity checks: Detect unusual transaction patterns
• Device fingerprinting: Identify suspicious devices
• Geolocation analysis: Flag location mismatches
• Amount thresholds: Configurable limits per merchant
• Blacklist management: Block known bad actors

• Set custom transaction limits in your dashboard
• Enable additional verification for high-value transactions
• Access fraud analytics and reports

1. Wait 5-15 minutes for auto-resolution
2. Check transaction status via API
3. If stuck > 30 minutes, contact support

• Using sandbox credentials with production URL (or vice versa)
• Typo in client-id or client-secret
• Credentials were regenerated and old ones are being used
• Missing required headers

1. Verify you’re using the correct environment URLs
2. Re-copy credentials from Dashboard → Settings → API Keys
3. Ensure headers are exactly: client-id and client-secret (not clientId)

# Correct header format
--header 'client-id: abc123' \
--header 'client-secret: xyz789'