squadco.com

What It Is

Squad is an all-in-one payment solution launched by HabariPay and fully regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Built for African businesses of all sizes, it brings together online and offline payments, payouts, and value-added services to simplify how merchants collect payments and manage funds.

Core Dimension Analysis

• Service type: Covers payment gateway, virtual accounts, payment links, USSD payments, POS terminals, transfer APIs, and even free e-commerce website-building tools plus value-added services (VAS) such as airtime, data, and SMS.
• Supported payment methods: Supports local and international cards, bank transfers, and USSD. The USSD feature is especially important for reaching feature-phone users across Africa.
• Countries/regions covered: Primarily focused on Africa, especially the Nigerian market, with NGN settlement and support for local Nigerian operators.
• Rates and fees: Payment processing fee is 1.20%, with no hidden charges; SMS costs 5.41 NGN per message; airtime/data purchases come with 2% cashback.
• Settlement cycle: Funds can be credited to the merchant wallet within 24 hours, while USSD-related funds and similar payments are transferred to bank accounts the next day, offering relatively efficient cash flow.
• Compliance and licensing: Operated by HabariPay and licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), giving it a solid compliance foundation.
• Risk control capabilities: The company states that it uses top security standards to protect businesses, but it does not disclose specific risk-control models or anti-fraud details.
• API and integration: Highly developer-friendly, offering RESTful APIs, SDKs, and a WooCommerce plugin, with support for mainstream languages/frameworks such as PHP, Go, React, and Flutter, plus a sandbox environment. It also provides no-code integration options, allowing non-technical merchants to get started in as little as 5 minutes.

Pricing, Pros, and Cons

In terms of pricing, the 1.2% payment fee is highly competitive in the Nigerian market. Key strengths include a broad product suite covering online and offline scenarios, payment collection, and website building; wide USSD reach; 24-hour settlement; and the credibility of a CBN license. The drawbacks are that its business is heavily focused on Nigeria, support for markets outside Africa is limited, and risk-control details are not sufficiently disclosed.

Who It’s For

Squad is especially well suited to local micro and small businesses in Nigeria, offline stores that need POS/USSD payments, sole proprietors without a website who can use payment links or the free site builder, and fintech companies that need deeply customized payment capabilities. It even offers a dedicated solution for church collections.

Access from China

As a local Nigerian fintech payment platform, its accessibility from China is unclear, and proxy access may typically be required. For Chinese companies expanding into Africa—especially Nigeria—in sectors such as e-commerce or pan-entertainment, Squad is an excellent option for local payment integration. Domestic alternatives should also consider other African payment aggregators such as Flutterwave or Paystack.