CashAfrica has partnered with Food Concepts to introduce mobile tap-to-pay payments at Chicken Republic outlets in Nigeria.

Table Of Content

How the payment service will work
Settlement and transaction costs
Companies target wider contactless adoption

The service will allow customers to pay for meals by tapping supported smartphones on compatible payment terminals. CashAfrica said the deployment will be gradual, beginning in Lagos before expanding to Abuja and other locations.

How the payment service will work

Customers will initiate payments through participating banking or fintech applications and tap their phones on PalmPay point-of-sale terminals. Depending on the device, users may be required to authenticate transactions with features such as Face ID or fingerprint recognition.

CashAfrica will provide the technology that enables the contactless transactions. Its CashTap product uses near-field communication, a short-range wireless technology that allows compatible devices to exchange information.

Food Concepts owns Chicken Republic, as well as the PieXpress and The Chop Box brands. CashAfrica said it intends to extend the service across all of Chicken Republic’s more than 350 outlets in Nigeria after the phased introduction.

Settlement and transaction costs

ChamsSwitch will support the regulatory, infrastructure, transaction-routing and settlement aspects of the payment system. Malik Asamu, chief executive officer of CashAfrica, described the company as a regulatory partner involved in cross-settlements and the movement of funds.

“If Chicken Republic is collecting tap-to-pay, a lot of that money needs to be moving in the background, such as T+1 settlements and end-of-day settlements. ChamsSwitch is heavily involved in that,” Asamu said.

Customers will not pay a separate fee to use the service, according to Asamu. Instead, CashAfrica will charge the merchant a percentage of each processed transaction. The company said its typical rate ranges from 0.1% to 1.5%, depending on the arrangement.

Companies target wider contactless adoption

Solomon Ojelade, head of finance at Chicken Republic, said the partnership was intended to improve the speed and convenience of payments for customers.

“Customer experience has always been at the heart of Chicken Republic, and we continuously look for ways to make every meal faster, easier and more convenient,” Ojelade said.

CashAfrica was founded in 2024 by Malik Asamu and Bello Opeyemi. The company provides payment infrastructure for banks and fintechs seeking to add contactless transactions to their existing services.

CashAfrica previously integrated with PalmPay, which began rolling out contactless payment functionality on its point-of-sale terminals in February 2025 through an initial 1,000-device pilot. The company also partnered with ChamsSwitch in May to address regulatory compliance and transaction-routing requirements.

Asamu said CashAfrica plans to work with more banks and fintech companies so that additional customers can access mobile tap-to-pay through existing applications. He also said the company has signed other partnerships with quick-service restaurants and supermarkets and expects to announce them in the coming months.