“Can a CBN-licensed microfinance bank build both a consumer neobank and a merchant payments gateway on a single Nigerian rails stack?”
Aku started as a consumer digital payments platform targeting African creatives, offering personal banking, savings, and credit through a mobile app tied to a CBN-licensed microfinance bank charter (Aku Micro-Finance Bank Limited). It has since expanded downstream into merchant infrastructure, exposing a payment gateway (AkuPay / NectarOS) with card acquiring, virtual accounts, direct debit, and payouts — positioning itself as both a consumer neobank and a Nigerian payments PSP for other merchants.
Aku discloses Aku Micro-Finance Bank Limited (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Aku does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Aku Micro-Finance Bank Limited (in-house).
Aku processes payments through AkuPay (self-operated) and NectarOS (self-operated).
Aku's cards run on Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
Aku's lending and capital products are provided by Aku (in-house).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 4 layers in Aku's stack: Payments / PSP (AkuPay (self-operated) and NectarOS (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (Aku Micro-Finance Bank Limited (in-house)); Card network (Visa, Mastercard and American Express); Lending (Aku (in-house) and Personal credit (Aku consumer app)).
Aku is founded in 2019 and headquartered in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.
Aku has raised $2.25M in total (latest round: Seed).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Aku and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.