From Cash to Digital Payments: How Zest Is Powering Nigeria’s Payment Ecosystem

As Nigeria accelerates its digital economy, secure and reliable payment infrastructure has become a critical foundation for business growth. From micro-merchants and SMEs to large enterprises, digital payments now play a central role in everyday economic activity across Africa’s largest economy.

Zest Payments Limited, a leading Nigerian fintech platform, is strengthening this foundation through a strategic collaboration with Huawei Cloud, delivering stable, scalable, and compliant payment services nationwide.

Building a Smarter Payment Platform

Zest is the fintech subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC, part of the Standard Bank Group, and operates under licenses from both the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The company provides a unified multi-railed payment platform that supports cards, bank transfers, USSD, and QR codes, enabling seamless transactions across a wide range of scenarios and offering sector specific payment customization – from educational institutions, oil and gas, ports FMCG to supplier settlements and daily sales by micro-merchants. ZEST also empowers businesses with customizable digital storefronts and an integrated biller hub helping merchants go online and manage transactions efficiently as well as offer lifestyle products to their customers.

Scaling Securely Through Cloud Collaboration

As digital adoption accelerated, Zest experienced rapid growth in transaction volumes and user demand, which placed pressure on traditional IT systems, particularly in performance, scalability, and compliance.

To meet these challenges, the company partnered with Huawei Cloud to scale its technology foundation using cloud architecture.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Stanley Jacob, Chief Executive Officer of Zest, said, “With Huawei Cloud, we can deliver secure, scalable, and reliable payment services—even during peak periods—while preparing the platform for future innovation. This partnership ensures that our systems meet financial-grade security and compliance standards, giving businesses and consumers confidence in every transaction.”

The collaboration delivered measurable operational improvements: platform performance increased by around 30%, cloud-related costs decreased by approximately 50%, and system stability was significantly enhanced. By leveraging Huawei Cloud’s integrated security and local support, Zest maintains continuous operations, fully compliant with CBN and PCI-DSS standards, while laying a solid foundation for future growth.

Driving Growth Across Nigeria’s Payment Ecosystem

“The true value of this collaboration is that it allows us to innovate confidently, expand services securely, and support the broader financial sector in Nigeria. Technology is the bridge between businesses and the future of the digital economy,” Dr Stanley Jacob continued,

Looking ahead, Zest will continue to explore AI-driven innovations in collaboration with Huawei Cloud, building a more open, intelligent, and resilient fintech platform. By aligning its technological growth with Nigeria’s digital economy goals, Zest is contributing to a more connected, inclusive, and reliable financial ecosystem.

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