Gatekipa Seeks to End ‘Silent’ Subscription Deductions

A new fintech platform, Gatekipa, has been launched in Jos, Plateau State, with a focus on helping individuals and businesses take control of recurring payments and subscription charges.

Developed by Westgate Stratagem Limited, the product was unveiled on Friday at A+ MSME Hub, Jos, where stakeholders, tech enthusiasts, early users, and government officials gathered for a live demonstration of the platform.

Gatekipa enters the market at a time when subscription-based services, from streaming platforms to software tools, are becoming a dominant payment model globally. While convenient, these services have also led to what industry analysts describe as “financial leakage,” where users continue to pay for services they no longer use.

According to the founder of Gatekipa, Eric Martyns,

“The point of Gatekipa is to help users take control of their payments. What we’ve built enables you to take ownership of your finances. You don’t need to remember all your different subscriptions across multiple platforms. With Gatekipa, you can track all your subscriptions from one app, which prevents you from being charged unnecessary fees over products you may no longer be interested in”

Cofounder of Gatekipa, Eric Martins gives a live demo of the product. 

Most people use one bank card for everything—Netflix, Spotify, apps, and other subscriptions. Once you enter your card details, those services can keep charging you automatically, even if you forget about them or stop using them.

Gatekipa changes that system.

Instead of using one card everywhere, you create a separate virtual card for each subscription. Before you use it, you set rules, like how much can be charged, how often, and for how long. For example, you can allow a service to charge ₦2,000 per month for only three months.

After that, any attempt to charge the card outside those rules is automatically blocked.

The idea is that the platform sits between your bank card and the subscription service. So instead of the service having full access to your money, it can only charge what you’ve already approved.

This is different from other apps like Rocket Money that sit passively on transactions.

Gatekipa goes a step further by stopping unwanted charges before they happen, not just alerting you after your money is gone.

A cross section of attendees at Gatekipa’s launch in Jos

In simple terms, it puts you back in control of your money. Nothing is deducted unless it falls within the limits you’ve already set.

Speaking about Gatekipa, the co-founder of Gatekipa, Stephen Sunday said the platform was designed to address a long-standing imbalance in how payments are authorised and processed.

If you look at how payments work today, once you enter your card details, you’ve already given permission for future charges,” the representative said. “Gatekipa changes that by allowing users to define the rules upfront, so payments only happen when they meet those conditions.

During the demonstration, attendees were shown how transactions that fall outside user-defined conditions are automatically blocked, effectively stopping unwanted charges before they occur.

The platform also introduces additional layers of control, including time-based restrictions such as limiting transactions to certain hours, and geographic controls that determine where payments can originate.

For businesses, Gatekipa offers tools to manage subscriptions across teams, vendors, and operational expenses, potentially reducing inefficiencies in corporate spending.

The launch reflects a broader shift in financial technology, where innovation is moving beyond simply enabling transactions to giving users greater authority over how their money is spent.

As digital payments continue to expand across Nigeria and beyond, products like Gatekipa may test whether consumers are ready to move from passive payment systems to more controlled, rule-based financial management.

A participant tries out Gatekipa at the launch. 

Speaking at the event, Jerusha Daniel, a representative of the Plateau State Micro Finance Development Agency said,

This is a bold move, and we look forward to using this within our agency

Meanwhile, Johnpaul Nwobodo, founder and CEO of Recon stated,

The product is solid and it solves a local problem that most individuals actually face. If they can actually deliver what they said, they will, 
I believe we will see the product blowing off soon

Another participant, Joy Ugo, said she was enthusiastic about Gatekipa.

This is actually very good, and I will be adapting it for my subscriptions henceforth.