Zenith Bank, First Bank, and UBA Enhance Payment Processing by Joining Zone's Decentralized Network

Zone, Africa's leading payment infrastructure company, today announced that three of the continent’s largest financial institutions—First Bank, UBA, and Zenith Bank—have joined its decentralized payment network. The move follows Zone’s recent $8.5 million seed funding round, led by Flourish Ventures and TLcom Capital, and the launch of its decentralized PoS Payment Gateway, ZonePOS. These developments mark significant progress toward Zone’s mission of connecting all monetary stores of value through blockchain technology.

Having secured a switching and processing license from the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2022, Zone operates Africa's first regulated blockchain network for payments. By integrating with Zone’s network, UBA, Zenith Bank, and First Bank, along with other financial service providers, will greatly enhance their payment processing capabilities. The direct transaction routing between network participants eliminates intermediaries, reduces failure points, and results in faster, more reliable, and scalable transaction processing at lower costs.

With its unique architecture and underlying technology, Zone's blockchain powered payment infrastructure is expected to serve as a major catalyst in the transformation of Nigeria’s payment industry and the actualization of the highly anticipated cashless society. With leading banks like Zenith Bank, First Bank, and UBA already integrated and processing transactions on its network, the industry stands to gain more than just improved transaction reliability. This is because connecting financial service providers directly with each other also delivers payment experiences with significantly less friction and allows payment service providers function with little to no operational risks. Specifically, Zone’s network provides end-to-end transparency and automatic reconciliation, which eliminates chargebacks, prevents chargeback fraud, and delivers same-day settlement to financial institutions and their customers. 

Commenting on the announcement, Obi Emetarom, CEO and co-founder of Zone, said: “We are thrilled to have UBA, Zenith Bank, and First Bank  our network. Their integration into our decentralized payment network is a significant milestone in our journey to advance the payment landscape in Nigeria and the rest of the world. Having some of Africa’s largest and most reputable financial institutions, underscores the growing trust in our technology and its ability to deliver on our promise of reliable, frictionless and universally interoperable payment experiences. As we continue to expand and enhance our payment network, we remain committed to connecting every monetary store of value and enabling a truly inclusive financial ecosystem operating without cash.”

Zone is a regulated blockchain network that enables payments and acceptance of digital currencies. Its Layer-1 Blockchain network digitises Fiat payments and enables the transition to digital currencies while connecting previously excluded financial institutions into an all-inclusive payment ecosystem. Zone, Africa’s first decentralised payment network, allows participating institutions to connect directly with each other and perform payment transactions without an intermediary while completely automating settlement, reconciliation, and dispute management.