Zirzir

Three Layers, One Stack

The SDK

Open-source, MIT-licensed. One unified interface for every African payment gateway — TypeScript, Python, Go. Use it standalone or with the server.

The Server

Self-hostable Go server. Webhook infrastructure, transaction ledger, credential management, RBAC, multi-project support, and a full dashboard. The operational backbone.

The Cloud

Don’t want to run your own server? Same server, same features, zero ops. Point your SDK at zirzir.dev and go.

The Encyclopedia

The real-world reference for African payment gateways — fees, settlement realities, sandbox quirks, and the things official docs don’t tell you.

The Problem

Africa has a payment fragmentation problem unlike anywhere else in the world. Each country has its own gateways. Each gateway has its own API, auth flow, webhook format, error codes, and quirks.

But the fragmentation goes deeper than just API differences. When you’re building a payment-enabled product, you don’t just need integration code. You need:

• Webhook infrastructure with retries, deduplication, and signature verification
• A transaction database with reconciliation logic
• Dashboards for your finance team
• Multi-environment support (test vs. live) per provider
• RBAC so developers don’t have access to production keys
• The ability to figure out why a transaction is stuck in pending at 11 PM

Every company building in African fintech solves these problems independently. Expensively. Repeatedly. That’s what Zirzir replaces.

Quick Start

npm install @zirzir/sdk

import { Zirzir } from '@zirzir/sdk'

// Standalone — talk directly to a gateway
const zirzir = new Zirzir({
  provider: 'chapa',
  credentials: { secretKey: process.env.CHAPA_SECRET_KEY! }
})

// Or Server Mode — point at your Zirzir server
const zirzir = new Zirzir({
  baseUrl: 'https://pay.yourcompany.com',
  apiKey: 'zz_live_...'
})

// Same API either way
const tx = await zirzir.charge({
  amount: 500,
  currency: 'ETB',
  email: '[email protected]',
  txRef: 'order_123',
})

Supported Providers

Provider	Country	Type	Status
Telebirr	Ethiopia	Mobile Money	Stable
CBEBirr	Ethiopia	Mobile Money	Stable
Chapa	Ethiopia	Payment Gateway	Stable
Santim Pay	Ethiopia	Mobile Money	Stable
Awash Bank	Ethiopia	Bank Transfer	Stable
EthSwitch	Ethiopia	Interbank	Stable
M-Pesa (Safaricom)	Kenya	Mobile Money	Beta
Airtel Money	Kenya/Tanzania/Uganda	Mobile Money	Beta

How It Compares

	Zirzir	Direct Integration	Global SDK (Stripe etc.)
African gateway support	Native	Painful	Limited
Webhook infrastructure	Built in	Build it yourself	Built in
Self-hostable	Yes	N/A	No
Open source SDK	Yes	N/A	No
Multi-project support	Yes	No	Yes
USSD flow support	First-class	Painful	No
Dashboard & analytics	Built in	Build it yourself	Built in

Who Zirzir Is For

Startups

Stop spending 3 months building payment infrastructure before you can ship your actual product. Zirzir is that infrastructure, already built.

Agencies

One Zirzir server, multiple projects. Each client gets isolated credentials, their own dashboard view, their own webhook endpoints.

Platforms

Split payments, multi-party payouts, reconciliation across providers — the server layer handles the complexity your platform would otherwise have to build.

Developers

The SDK is open source and the sandbox works on day one. Clone it, run it, understand how African payment APIs actually work.