Paystack is not available in Tanzania. For Tanzanian payment acceptance, your options are Selcom (the dominant gateway for Tanzanian mobile money and card), Pesapal (pan-East Africa including Tanzania), or direct mobile money operator APIs (Vodacom Tanzania Mpesa API, Tigo Pesa API, Airtel Money TZ API). Selcom is the most complete Tanzanian-first gateway — it aggregates all three major mobile money networks plus card under one API. If you are building a product that starts in Nigeria/Kenya (Paystack) and expands to Tanzania, you will need to add Selcom or Pesapal for Tanzania. There is no way to extend Paystack to Tanzania.
| Feature | Paystack | Selcom |
|---|---|---|
| Tanzania availability | Not available | Primary market |
| Vodacom M-Pesa TZ | No | Yes |
| Tigo Pesa | No | Yes |
| Airtel Money TZ | No | Yes |
| Card (Visa/Mastercard) | Not in Tanzania | Yes — TZS card acceptance |
| Currency | NGN, KES, GHS, ZAR, EGP (not TZS) | TZS (Tanzanian Shilling) |
| Nigeria / Ghana | Yes | No |
| Kenya | Yes — M-Pesa STK push | No (Tanzania only) |
| API documentation | Excellent | Functional — covers main integration flows |
| Developer experience | Best available in its markets | Adequate for Tanzania |
| Mobile money aggregation | Per-country (M-Pesa KE, MTN GH) | All 3 Tanzanian MNOs under one API |
| Settlement currency | NGN, KES, GHS, ZAR | TZS |
Selcom provides a REST API with HMAC-based authentication. The pattern is similar in concept to Paystack but with Tanzanian-specific flows:
// Selcom — initiate mobile money push payment
var payload = {
vendor: process.env.SELCOM_VENDOR_ID,
order_id: orderId,
buyer_email: email,
buyer_name: name,
buyer_phone: phone, // Tanzanian phone: 255XXXXXXXXX
amount: amountInTZS,
currency: 'TZS',
no_of_items: 1,
webhook: 'https://yourapp.com/webhook/selcom',
cancel_url: 'https://yourapp.com/cancel',
redirect_url: 'https://yourapp.com/success',
header_colour: '#153564',
};
// Selcom uses HMAC-SHA256 signature on the payload
var signature = createSelcomSignature(payload, process.env.SELCOM_API_SECRET);
var response = await fetch('https://apigw.selcommobile.com/v1/checkout/create-order', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Authorization: 'SELCOM ' + process.env.SELCOM_API_KEY + ':' + signature,
'Digest-Method': 'HS256',
'Digest': timestamp,
'Timestamp': timestamp,
},
body: JSON.stringify(payload),
});
// Response includes a payment_gateway_url to redirect the customer toThe Selcom checkout presents Vodacom M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money, and card options to the customer. The customer completes payment on their phone; Selcom fires a webhook to your server and calls your redirect URL.
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See single vs multi-gateway architecture for adding Selcom alongside Paystack for Tanzania coverage.
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