Yes many have tried and many have failed miserably, and many would try again and many would fail, and the race would never end, until someone figures it out.

Running a remittance or payment system goes beyond just developing a platform that enables exchange between one party to another, it requires understanding and having the necessary skill set, model and the financial backing.
Why are developers in Africa failing at developing an adoptable Internet payment gateway?

1. Lack of Finance and Accounting Background or Counsel

2. Lack of financial Capital to support their model

3. Over complicated and over bloated solution

4. Relying on traditional banking channels to facilitate account funding

5. No Proper company structure to support business model

6. Lack of Support or modules for popular shopping carts and billing systems

7. Lack of resolution system or proper support system embedded into payment gateway

8. Lack of developer tools and documentation to enable developers develop portable modules that could be embedded at devices and shopping carts

9. Cost barrier to entry or very high transaction cost.

10. Complicated withdrawal systems

11. Lack of communication channel for feedbacks during development cycle with potential customers.

12. Lack of sound business model and plan to support the solution

13. Copying other payment modules blindly and lack of proper research and feasibility study.

Do you want to solve this problem? I have a very comprehensive module that would solve this effectively. Watch out for it in my future post entitled, An Effective Payment Gateway Solution for Africa.