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About Zone
Zone is a Nigerian payment infrastructure network running as a permissioned Layer 1 blockchain for banks, fintechs and other regulated institutions. It targets the dependence of POS and ATM transactions on a central switch: issuers and acquirers have no direct line of communication, so cardholders are debited without receiving value when a transaction fails, producing chargeback fraud and reconciliation disputes. Zone uses proof-of-authority consensus with an EVM-compatible runtime, puts routing, reconciliation and settlement on-chain, enforces regulator-defined KYC, AML and exchange control rules through smart contracts, and settles in real time using native settlement tokens pegged to each country's fiat currency or CBDC.
Zone holds a switching and payment processing licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria and works with the national clearing house NIBSS to decentralise payment terminal service aggregator functions; its products cover direct POS routing, ATM switching and interbank transfers. Validators and archival nodes must be licensed by the relevant regulator, so the pace of network expansion depends on how quickly each jurisdiction issues licences.
Zone saw no new funding, licence or product announcement in 2026, though its website and blog kept publishing research on African payment markets; the latest verifiable major step is the 8.5 million dollar seed round announced on March 18, 2024, led by TLcom Capital and Flourish Ventures with Verod-Kepple, Endeavor Catalyst and DCG participating.
Licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria as a switching and processing company, Zone routes payments directly between banks and fintechs; First Bank, UBA and Zenith Bank are connected, and the product set covers ZoneATM, ZonePOS and account transfers through ZoneFT. The company claims throughput above 50,000 transactions per second with same-day settlement and automated reconciliation.
Zone plans to extend domestic switching into pan-African cross-border corridors and replicate the direct clearing model in stablecoin and agent network use cases.
Obi Emetarom — Co-founder & CEO; electronic and computer engineering background with over 20 years in fintech, led Appzone's transformation into Zone and its regulated blockchain payment network.
Wale Onawunmi — Co-founder & CTO; banking technology veteran overseeing engineering and product architecture of Zone's blockchain payment network.
Tim Souter — Chief Financial Officer; responsible for finance, treasury and investor relations.
In May 2021, Zone (formerly Appzone) obtained a Switching and Processing License from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)， authorizing it to route， process and settle payment transactions between banks and financial institutions on Africa's first regulated blockchain payment network.