E-Business
DPO Group Rattles Africa’s e-commerce Space with PayFast Acquisition
Pan-African payment service provider and Kenya-based DPO Group has acquired South African payment processor PayFast for an undisclosed sum.
The deal by the Nairobi-headquartered DPO Group was backed by Apis Partners and executed through a mix of shares and cash, with the PayFast management team remaining key shareholders in DPO Group.
Management representing both companies would not divulge the value of the deal, but described it as “the biggest deal of its kind in Africa, to date”, eclipsing its R100-million acquisition of PayGate in 2016.
Management said in total it has deployed US$25-million in facilitating the growth of DPO and this would be one component of that.
“PayFast is a natural fit for DPO Group and this deal strategically follows our acquisitions of PayGate, VCS, Paythru and SiD since 2016,” commented Offer Gat, Chairman and co-founder of DPO Group.
“This deal, which we believe is the largest acquisition by a PSP in Africa, reinforces our position as a leading PSP on the continent and is an important step forward in our strategic growth across Africa.
“The combination of DPO Group and PayFast will greatly increase the ability of merchants on our platform to do business with their clients both within and outside of Africa. Finally, it will allow DPO to continue to improve merchant services, allowing more merchants to transact more broadly at lower cost.”
Following the transaction, DPO Group will be providing services to over 100,000 merchants across 18 African markets.
PayFast, founded in 2007, uses a facilitator model to process payments and serves as a single point of contact for its clients.
It is said to have 55,000 merchant partners in South Africa and a network of 80 shopping carts and ecommerce platforms in Africa, including global e-commerce platform Shopify.
The integration of PayFast into DPO’s services will enable merchants and, in turn, individual consumers to carry out transactions across 18 countries in Africa from a single platform.
Jonathan Smit, Managing Director and co-founder of PayFast, said, “Integrating our processing and facilitation capability with the range of online payment services offered by DPO and its huge geographical reach across 18 countries in Africa is an extremely exciting opportunity for both companies.
The coming together of two leading online payment specialists will have a positive impact on the African payments landscape and create better future career opportunities for our current and future talent. I am excited to be working with the DPO team in growing the business further in the years ahead.”
Peter Harvey, Managing Director and co-founder of DPO Southern Africa, said: “PayFast is a very welcome addition to the DPO Group and I’m delighted to welcome Jonathan Smit on to the board in South Africa.
“We’re looking forward to working closely with the PayFast team to quickly widen the range of services available to our merchants. The demand from African and global companies to make and receive payments reliably, securely and quickly, is growing exponentially. We are seeing this trend from both our SME and multinational customers. DPO Group is now in an even better position to not only meet that demand but accelerate opportunities for businesses and consumers.”
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
Nigeria recently launched a new joint case team to step up its response to cybercrimes that affect people and businesses at home and abroad.
The ‘Joint Case Team on Cybercrime’ brings together Nigeria’s key justice and security agencies to work as one, making it easier to detect, investigate, and prosecute digital offences.
It is supported by the UK National Crime Agency, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as part of a wider effort to promote international cooperation on cybercrime.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, minister of justice and attorney general of the federation described the initiative as “a bold and transformative stride in Nigeria’s justice system.”
He said that although Nigeria has a national legal framework to address cyber offences, laws alone are not enough.
Nigeria is among the countries most affected by cybercrime around the world, with increasing financial losses.
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