Paystack is set to shut down Allawee’s business and personal account services from December 1, 2026, as the Nigerian fintech integrates the platform into its broader financial services business, according to emails sent to Allawee customers.
Allawee told customers that its technology now operates within Paystack and warned that payments sent to Allawee account numbers from December 1 would fail. Allawee cards will also stop working after the deadline, regardless of the expiry date printed on them.
Allawee and Paystack declined to comment on the acquisition or the closure.
Allawee customers have until November 30 to withdraw their balances, update their bank details with anyone who sends them money and replace Allawee card details linked to subscriptions or recurring payments.
The company said customers’ money would not expire or be forfeited. However, anyone with a remaining balance after the deadline will need to contact support@paystackmfb.com to request a manual payout.
Customers are therefore being encouraged to move their funds before the shutdown date to avoid potentially longer delays associated with the manual withdrawal process.
The closure will effectively move Allawee customers into different parts of Paystack’s growing financial services ecosystem.
Businesses using Allawee accounts are being directed to Paystack MFB, the microfinance bank created after Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank in January.
Individual customers, meanwhile, are being directed to Zap, Paystack’s consumer transfer app.
The transition will not carry over customers’ balances, account numbers, transaction history or verification records. Customers will have to open new accounts from scratch.
Paystack is building through acquisitions
The Allawee shutdown is the latest example of Paystack using acquisitions to expand its financial services infrastructure.
Earlier this year, Paystack folded Brass, a business banking startup, into Paystack MFB after acquiring the company through a consortium in 2024.
Paystack also acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank in January, giving the payments company access to a banking licence. It subsequently restructured under a new holding company.
The strategy suggests that Paystack is assembling different parts of a financial services ecosystem rather than building every product internally.
Founded in 2022 by Ikenna Enenwali and Oreofe Olurin, Allawee initially operated as a credit card lender before shifting into credit-risk technology and eventually becoming a card infrastructure provider.
By 2025, the company was providing card infrastructure for fintechs including Piggyvest, Nomba and Carbon. Its platform was designed to make it significantly faster for businesses to launch card programmes.
That infrastructure could be particularly valuable to Paystack as it expands beyond payments into banking and consumer financial services.
Allawee also operated business accounts through Providus Bank and offered a Mastercard credit card targeted at federal civil servants and National Youth Service Corps members.
With Paystack now operating its own microfinance bank, maintaining a separate Providus-backed account business could have created unnecessary overlap.
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