Paystack Layoff 33 Employees in Europe and Dubai to Expand Operations in Africa

Paystack has announced its plan to reduce its operations outside of Africa, reducing the number of employees in Europe and Dubai, affecting 33 employees working with the payment platform. 

This announcement was made public on Thursday by Paystack co-founder and CEO Shola Akinlade, who posted it on X, formerly Twitter.  To further explain his statement, the CEO said the fintech company will change its operating model to have its team located within the markets it serves to localize costs.

Akinlade said the company also plans to compensate affected employees in its recent layoff by giving them four months' salary, extending their health insurance by three months, and accelerating their equity vesting, “and more.”

The Tweet reads,

• Today was a difficult day at Paystack.

• We’re reducing our operations outside of Africa, and will be parting ways with up to 33 employees in Europe and the UAE.

• In the last 3 years, our hiring philosophy was to recruit great talent regardless of location, including opening an engineering hub in Dubai.

• We’re changing our operating model to prioritize locating team members within the markets we serve, to localize costs and get closer to customers.

• We’re sparing no expense to minimise disruption to the lives of team members. The severance package includes 4 months’ salary, accelerating equity vesting, extending health insurance by 3 months, and more.

• These are some of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with, and my goal is to ensure that every single one finds new roles as soon as possible. I’m personally happy to vouch for each one and do reference calls as needed.

In the tweet, the CEO added a form for interested parties hitting the affected Paystack employees whose jobs cut across finance, sales and marketing, software engineering, legal and compliance, product design, and human resources.

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Back Story

Following the acquisition of the company by Stripe in 2020 for $200 million, Paystack has continued expanding its operations by establishing offices in Accra, Cape Town, Dubai, and Nairobi. This expansion was complemented by recruiting European staff through remote operations and selecting an engineering hub in Dubai. The report shows that Paystack had already maintained offices in Lagos and San Francisco before these developments.

Paystack operates in four markets: Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa.  The company, characterized by its lean operation, has experienced a moderate expansion in staff strength, contributing to a series of product releases over the past three years, Techcrunch said.

Other remarkable achievements include releasing an app for Shopify, launching a terminal device, and, most recently, adding a direct debit feature. The company is undergoing private beta testing on the Ivory Coast, Egypt, and Rwanda as part of its strategic expansion efforts. Paystack job cut is going to affect some people and they are going to cut more jobs in the feature.