Accept Pesapal
without building the integration
Pesapal is an East African payment service provider that lets businesses accept mobile money, card and bank payments across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe through one integration. Mobile money — not cards — is the dominant payment method in most of these markets, which is what makes Pesapal a practical default for the region.
- KES
- UGX
- TZS
- RWF
- ZMW
- USD
- EUR
- GBP
- Region
- East & Southern Africa
- Methods
- 3
- Credentials
- Server-side only
- PaymentHood fee
- None
- Status
- Live
What is Pesapal?
- Coverage
-
- Kenya
- Uganda
- Tanzania
- Rwanda
- Malawi
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Among the markets Pesapal serves — their own list is authoritative (opens in new tab).
- Currencies
-
- KES
- UGX
- TZS
- RWF
- ZMW
- USD
- EUR
- GBP
Among those supported. Which ones your account can charge in depends on its registered country.
- Fees
- Set and billed by Pesapal, and published on their pricing page (opens in new tab). PaymentHood adds nothing on top, at any volume.
- Official resources
- Website (opens in new tab) · Developer docs (opens in new tab)
Written against Pesapal's own documentation on . This page deliberately states no fees, no counts and no completeness claims, because those change without notice — for anything you are about to build on, Pesapal's own documentation (opens in new tab) is the authority.
Pesapal payment methods
Every method below runs through the same PaymentHood checkout. Turning one on or off is a dashboard setting, not a code change.
Mobile money
The regional wallets, including M-PESA and Airtel Money
Cards
Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards
Bank transfer
Local bank payment where supported
Pesapal fees and pricing
Two separate bills, and only one of them exists.
- What PaymentHood charges
- Nothing on your Pesapal transactions. No percentage and no per-transaction cut, at any volume. Every payment feature is free, and the optional Premium plan only adds white-label checkout branding.
- What Pesapal charges
- Pesapal sets its own rates and bills you directly. PaymentHood never sits between you and that invoice, so switching to or from Pesapal changes what you pay Pesapal and nothing else.
- What moves the rate
- Payment providers price per market and per method rather than as a single global figure. Pesapal operates across 7 countries, so the country the payment is taken in matters. It settles in KES, UGX, TZS, RWF, ZMW, USD, EUR, GBP, and cross-currency transactions are not priced the same as domestic ones. It also accepts 3 different payment methods, and card, transfer and wallet rails each carry their own cost.
- Where to check the figure
- Pesapal publishes current rates on their pricing page (opens in new tab). That is the authority, not this page. We deliberately quote no numbers here, because a rate that has quietly changed is worse than no rate at all.
How PaymentHood works with Pesapal
A direct Pesapal integration is not just an API call. These are the parts every team ends up rebuilding — and the parts PaymentHood ships already done.
- Credentials
- Consumer key and consumer secret exchanged for a bearer token, held server-side in PaymentHood
- Webhook security
- Registered IPN (Instant Payment Notification) callback, validated before the order is released
- Payment verification
- Server-side transaction status re-check against Pesapal before fulfilment
- Idempotent charge creation, so a retried request never double-charges a customer
- Automatic failover to another configured provider when Pesapal is unreachable
- One reconciliation view across Pesapal and every other provider you run
- Provider credentials never reach the storefront or the customer's browser
- Adding or switching a provider later is a dashboard change, not a re-integration
Pesapal integrations by platform
Install the free PaymentHood plugin for your store, then enable Pesapal in your dashboard.
How to connect Pesapal
Open your Pesapal account
Register directly with Pesapal and complete their onboarding. Funds settle from Pesapal into your own bank account — PaymentHood never holds merchant money.
Add the credentials to PaymentHood
Paste your Pesapal API credentials into the PaymentHood dashboard. They are stored server-side and never exposed to your storefront.
Enable it at checkout
Install the PaymentHood plugin for your platform, paste your PaymentHood API key, and Pesapal appears as a payment option. Test in sandbox, then switch to live.