CashAfrica, a Nigerian contactless payment infrastructure provider, has partnered with ChamsSwitch, a licenced switching and electronic payment processing company, to resolve the compliance bottlenecks stalling its tap-to-pay infrastructure.
Under the partnership, CashAfrica will handle the contactless experience when a customer taps a phone or card on a point-of-sale terminal. ChamSwitch will then route the transaction between banks and update balances.
The partnership is the company’s attempt to solve the compliance problem in scaling its contactless payment solution. CashAfrica said it had deals in progress with PalmPay, AltBank, and Sterling Bank, but each stalled as partners ran into extended due diligence and regulatory concerns.
Without a licenced switching partner, the company lacked the compliance credibility that financial institutions require before integrating new payment infrastructure. With the ChamsSwitch deal, it hopes to remove that blocker in one move.
“The partnership directly removes the compliance friction that has been the single biggest blocker across capital raising, partnership launches, and partner integrations,” said Malik Asamu, CashAfrica’s CEO. “With that foundation now in place, CashAfrica can pursue fundraising with a stronger story, activate integrations that were previously stalled, and approach new banking and fintech partners with the regulatory credibility they require.”
Founded in 2024 by Asamu and Bello Opeyemi, CashAfrica provides a tap-to-pay infrastructure using Near Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless technology that allows devices a few centimetres apart to communicate. Its product, CashTap, allows customers to pay by tapping a phone or contactless card on a PoS device.
Contactless payments remain rare in Nigeria, where the Central Bank has historically applied the same regulatory rigour to new payment infrastructure as it does to digital wallets and POS terminals. A 2025 CBN policy that restricted POS terminals to a 10-metre radius of their registered address and tied them exclusively to one financial institution illustrated the level of scrutiny operators face.
Nigeria already has real-time payment infrastructure—the Nigeria Quick Response code system allows QR-based payments through bank apps—but contactless payments require something more: merchant trust, financial institution buy-in, and a compliance foundation that can withstand banking-sector due diligence. CashAfrica is betting the ChamsSwitch partnership delivers all three.
“ChamsSwitch has been part of Nigeria’s payments infrastructure for years, and this partnership reflects our commitment to enabling the next generation of digital payment experiences, said Mudiaga Umukoro, CEO of ChamsSwitch.
