Empowering African Developers with an Open Source Payment SDK
The landscape of digital payments in West African countries is vibrant, diverse, and constantly evolving. From mobile money services to credit card payments and more, there is no shortage of payment methods and providers. However, this diversity can pose a significant challenge for app developers looking to integrate these payment options seamlessly into their applications. The lack of a standardized way to interact with these various payment providers has been a persistent issue. While efforts are being made to establish interoperability, they are still in their early stages, and the approach is debatable. Moreover, existing payment aggregators, though convenient, are often proprietary and do not cover all available options. This situation led to the development of an open-source payment SDK designed to address these challenges.
https://github.com/tecafrik-git/africa-payment-sdk-node
Why an SDK?
Developers who have attempted to integrate multiple payment providers into their applications can attest to the difficulties posed by lengthy documentation and complex APIs. Most of these providers offer similar functionalities, and the idea of abstracting these common operations behind a unified interface became increasingly appealing. The goal was to eliminate vendor lock-in and provide developers with a flexible solution that works seamlessly across various payment providers. This led us to create an open-source payment SDK.
The key features of this SDK include:
1. Single Interface: The SDK offers a single, unified interface for interacting with different payment providers, simplifying the integration process.
2. Extensible: Developers can easily extend the SDK to support additional payment providers, ensuring that it remains adaptable to the evolving payment landscape.
3. Type-Safe with Intellisense: The SDK is fully TypeScript-based, providing robust type checking and excellent IntelliSense support for a smoother development experience.
4. Abstraction: The SDK abstracts away the complexities of interacting with different payment providers, making it easier for developers to focus on creating their applications.
Why Open Source?
Open source software has a history of establishing de facto standards (think Kubernetes in cloud containerization or Android in the mobile operating system space). We, at Tecafrik, aspire to establish a similar standard for the African continent's payment integration needs. Open sourcing the SDK encourages collaboration among developers and the broader community to create a unified approach to handling payments.
Key benefits of open-sourcing this SDK include:
1. Establishing De Facto Standards: By making the SDK open source, the development community can collectively contribute to creating a standardized way of handling payments in West Africa.
2. Extensibility: We hope that developers from various regions and backgrounds will contribute support for additional payment platforms, further expanding its utility.
3. Collaboration: Open source fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing among developers, encouraging a sense of community and driving innovation.
How It Works
It's important to note that the SDK is not a payment aggregator in itself. Users still need to have accounts with payment aggregators or providers to leverage the SDK effectively. Instead, the SDK serves as a bridge between the app and the chosen payment provider or aggregator. It abstracts, translates, and simplifies payment operations and events, making it easier for developers to integrate multiple payment methods into their applications.
Here's how it works:
1. Multiple Providers: Developers can configure the SDK to work with multiple payment providers, allowing them to offer various payment methods to their users. For example, you can use Paydunya for mobile money, Paytech for Orange Money, Stripe for credit card payments, and more.
2. Checkout Methods: The SDK offers three primary methods for facilitating payments: mobile money, credit card payments, and redirects, depending on the chosen payment method.
3. Success/Failure Events: Payment outcomes are translated into success or failure events, which can be seamlessly integrated into the application using webhooks. When supported, the SDK even sets up webhooks automatically.
Roadmap
The development of this open-source payment SDK is an ongoing effort, with a roadmap aimed at improving its functionality and accessibility:
1. Platform Expansion: Currently available for Node.js, we have plans to develop versions of the SDK for other platforms to cater to a broader range of developers.
2. Provider Diversity: While the SDK currently supports Paydunya and Stripe, our goal is to encourage the community to contribute support for more payment providers, ensuring comprehensive coverage (CMI and PayStack will be added by Tecafrik soon).
3. Pluggable Extensions: We intend to make the SDK easily pluggable into various frameworks, further simplifying the integration process for developers.
Conclusion
This open-source payment SDK represents a significant step forward for African app developers seeking to integrate diverse payment options into their applications. By providing a standardized and extensible solution, it not only simplifies development but also encourages collaboration within the developer community. As the project continues to evolve, it holds the promise of becoming a de facto standard for handling payments in the African continent, fostering innovation and inclusivity in the digital payments ecosystem.
