ArifPay won the counter. The online checkout is a different game, and for bank-transfer payments, ArifPay's custom pricing and 1–2 day settlement are the wrong terms. Facts checked on 18 August 2026, sources at the bottom.
What ArifPay is
ArifPay Financial Technology S.C. is Ethiopia's first POS Payment System Operator, licensed by the National Bank of Ethiopia in November 2021 with 140M Br in reported paid-up capital. It runs ArifPOS, terminals for physical merchants, and ArifGateway, an online API with SDKs and webhooks that powers integrations like Yango Ethiopia.
In-store, it earned its reputation. For your online checkout, look closer.
Where ArifPay falls short for you
You negotiate a percentage instead of seeing a price
ArifPay's pricing is transaction-based and custom. There is no public rate. That means a sales cycle before you even know what the service costs, and a percentage of your revenue afterwards.
Payo's price is on the page: free. No negotiation, no percentage, no surprises. Paid advanced features are planned for later, and they'll be priced on the page too.
You wait for settlement, and for approval
Third-party sources put ArifPay's settlement at 1–2 business days. Payo has no settlement at all: the customer transfers straight to your bank account, so there's nothing to wait for and no third party holding your money.
And like the rest of the incumbents, ArifPay's onboarding requires a business license and a verification process before you can go live, a wall for any developer who wants to test an idea. Payo hands you an API key the same hour. No license needed to start accepting payments.
It wasn't built for online bank-transfer payments
ArifPay earned its reputation at the counter: POS terminals, agent models, on-demand integrations like Yango. The online gateway sits on top, but the flow it was designed for isn't "customer pays from their bank app, uploads the receipt". Payo is built backwards from that flow: the customer never leaves their bank app, uploads the receipt, and your signed webhook fires when the receipt is verified.
Fees, side by side
| ArifPay | Payo | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee | Transaction-based, custom. Contact sales. | Free. No setup, monthly, or per-transaction fees |
| Setup / monthly | Not published | None |
| Settlement | 1–2 business days. Instant payout available (third-party reported). | No settlement. The customer pays your account directly. |
Payo vs ArifPay at a glance
| ArifPay | Payo | |
|---|---|---|
| Home turf | POS terminals plus gateway API | Bank-transfer receipts online |
| Rails | Bank transfer, M-Pesa, Visa, Mastercard, mobile money | CBE, Telebirr, Abyssinia transfers plus receipt verification |
| Fees | Custom. Contact sales. | Free. Paid advanced features are planned for later |
| Settlement | 1–2 business days plus instant option | Money never touches Payo |
| Getting started | Business license plus verification | Same-hour API key, no license |
| Integration | SDKs, sandbox, webhooks | Raw REST plus signed webhooks |
The verdict
The one case for ArifPay: you run physical outlets and need POS terminals, or you're building an on-demand app where its in-app payments and instant payouts fit.
Online, for bank-transfer payments, the terms are wrong: a negotiated percentage, a settlement delay, an approval gate, and no receipt verification.
Choose Payo when:
- You sell online and your customers pay from their bank app.
- You want the price printed on the page: free, with any future paid advanced features priced there too.
- You want to be live this afternoon. No sales call, no business license, no waiting.
- You want each payment verified against the receipt before your webhook fires.
The counter belongs to ArifPay. The checkout, the part your online business runs on, is where Payo plays, and it plays to win.
Sources
- ArifPay developer docs — API, SDKs, sandbox, webhooks, accessed 18 Aug 2026
- ArifPay TypeScript SDK — DirectPay methods (Telebirr, Awash Wallet, Awash transfer)
- PaymentProviders.io — Chapa vs ArifPay — fees, settlement (third-party), accessed 18 Aug 2026
- Addis Fortune — first fintech payment operator license — licensing history
- Techpression — ArifPay and Yango Ethiopia — deployment and settlement reporting