“Can a legacy Nigerian bank leverage its digital-native ALAT brand to become the embedded payments and banking infrastructure for Nigerian merchants and developers?”
Wema Bank, founded 1945 and one of Nigeria's oldest banks, launched ALAT in 2016 as Africa's first fully digital bank. It has since expanded from a consumer neobank into merchant acquiring and embedded payments via ALATPay, and offers developer APIs (merchant payout, collections) through an Azure API Management portal — positioning Wema/ALAT as both a retail neobank and an emerging embedded finance provider in Nigeria.
ALAT by WEMA discloses Wema Bank PLC (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
ALAT by WEMA does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Wema Bank PLC (in-house).
ALAT by WEMA processes payments through ALATPay (self-operated).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 3 layers in ALAT by WEMA's stack: Payments / PSP (ALATPay (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (Wema Bank PLC (in-house)); Sponsor bank (Wema Bank PLC (in-house)).
ALAT by WEMA is founded in 2016 and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against ALAT by WEMA 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.