Let’s say Upwork just released your money! You absolutely don’t want to use the direct-to-naira option as the conversion rate is not satisfying enough, and you absolutely can’t afford the wire transfer option as you either can’t afford the ridiculous 50 USD fee or you don’t even have the domiciliary account necessary to use that option.
As a Nigerian, you only have 2 more options: Payoneer or the ACH direct to a US bank option. Payoneer is pretty straightforward; however, to get your money via ACH, you will need a US bank account.
Fortunately for you, there are many payment platforms offering you a way out and promising you various perks to make you choose them! Now, you are looking to choose between these platforms and hoping you choose the best!
Fortunately for you, I have tested 7 of those platforms offering virtual US bank accounts, and in this article, I will be sharing my experience with you across 8 different payment platforms (including Payoneer).
In this article, I will discuss 8 Upwork withdrawal methods in Nigeria, and I will be ranking the payment platforms on 4 metrics. These are: 1. How fast you get your money. 2. Fees ( deposit fees, withdrawal charges, and exchange rate). 3. General functionality. 4. Their customer service
Payoneer
How fast you get your money
Withdrawing from Upwork to Payoneer takes minutes, if not less than a minute. It is that fast. However, the challenge comes with getting it from Payoneer to your Naira or USD domiciliary account.
As for the Naira account, expect to see your money within 24 hours once you have withdrawn a few times. The first few times could take 2-3 business days. However, when withdrawing into your domiciliary account, expect a constant average of 2-3 business days.
Fees
From Upwork to Payoneer, the fee is $2. From Payoneer to your Naira account is all about the exchange rate. Payoneer’s exchange rate is as annoying as Upwork’s exchange rate. And don’t trust Payoneer’s supposed rate that they often display on the dashboard before you begin the withdrawal process. It is a bait.
For example, on May 22, 2026, I decided to withdraw some urgent money via Payoneer to my Naira account.
See what they claimed as the exchange rate on my dashboard:
But, while I was still doing the actual transaction to send to my Naira account, see what they brought as the actual conversion rate:
I wasted so much money that day as I anticipated a much higher conversion rate. That’s Payoneer for you. Don’t trust them to be transparent.
What if you want to withdraw your money into your domiciliary account? Another round of fees galore.
For starters, till now, I don’t exactly know how much they charge for each transfer, as it varies. Also, if you withdraw above 500 USD to any GT Bank account, the money that you are supposed to receive will be short of 10 USD. Basically, 10 USD will vanish with no trace or prior warning.
Let me show you 2 examples of my withdrawals from Payoneer and charges.
This is for a 441 USD withdrawal that I made:
They removed 13.25 USD as charges.
Now, let’s see a bigger one:
This was supposed to be a withdrawal of 883 USD. But Payoneer messed with my money – and that’s without the 10 USD unknown tax that would be taken from the money. That means a total charge of a whopping 36.49 USD. That’s diabolical!
And you know what’s crazy is that these 2 withdrawals happened within a week difference. Just imagine how much I lost from Payoneer fees within just a week, then imagine my losses each month! Payoneer really tried my patience – which was why I abandoned them for the next payment platform on this list in late Dec 2024.
Apart from all these fees, they also charge a 29.95 USD annual fee if you haven’t received up to 6,000 USD in 12 months! So, take note of that too.
General functionality
Nice, but with some issues. They have a real problem with login verifications on the laptop. So, my strong advice is that you ensure you are logged in to the mobile app, so that you can be using it to verify the login to the laptop. But God help you if you are logged out of both. Accept my sympathy in advance.
Also, they require verifications, but your normal NIN should be enough; ensure it is printed on plastic. They also accept the original plastic National ID card (for those who have that), driving license, or international passport. Lastly, they won’t accept a voter’s card.
Customer service
Payoneer will absolutely try its best not to get you to access its customer support live chat option. They have it, but you would have to defeat an army of help articles and AI bots before you get to the live support. And even to get there, if you are not a Payoneer pro like me, good luck reaching them.
Let me show you something funny. So, after defeating their army of help articles, I was confronted by their super soldier – The AI bot named Paula. It was tough, but I was tougher.
See some of our chats before it surrendered and sent me to a human agent.
And that, my friends, is how I defeated the Super Soldier AI agent named Paula.
However, like any company, they also have email support. Also, once you are able to contact the human agent, they respond fast. Also, it seems they have a decent email response time. So, note that. They have phone support, but not available for Nigeria.
Total rating: 4.8/10
Raenest (Formerly Geegpay)
How fast you get your money
Before, it usually comes the next day, a business day or weekend. That means even if you withdrew from Upwork on Friday, you would be confident that Geegpay would deliver your money on Saturday.
To finish everything, they then introduced something called Upwork Fasttrack, which allows you to receive your money in your Geegpay account in less than an hour! It felt as if nothing could go wrong – until April 2026!
Things literally fell apart for Geegpay.
First, the Fasttrack started having issues, and the money started getting delayed till the following day (just like before the Fasttrack feature).
Then, May (month) happened, and they simply lost the plot. First of all, I disconnected Fastrack because of the issues around their messed-up attempt to upgrade to FedNow (instead of just ACH), and since then, I haven’t been able to reconnect it.
As for their withdrawals, it now arrives the next business day (not on weekends) – just like most other platforms. It literally lost its main strength for Upwork withdrawals, and I also promptly abandoned them.
Fees
Their fees are tolerable. They have one free ACH deposit from Upwork monthly, and after that, it’s $1 flat per deposit.
They also have conversion fees, that is the fees they get when you want to convert to Naira. They charge 0.5%, capped at 2.7 USD per conversion.
Also, their exchange rate to Naira is similar to many of its competitors, and it is decent – much better than Payoneer or Upword direct to Naira option – just like the rest of the platforms on this list. However, just like the rest on this list, too, it isn’t on par with official black market rates – except during periods of market instability, where you might find better exchange rates on these payment platforms when compared to what you will find when you go to bureau de change (Aboki black market) operators.
General functionality
Geegpay is generally nice to use, but just like many other issues they are facing right now, they have serious problems in functionality too.
Apart from their Fasttrack feature that’s malfunctioning, I have also been experiencing a serious problem trying to log in to their mobile app.
Actually, that has been an issue since, but it is nowhere near this terrible. Many times, when it is quite urgent, I end up using their website to access my account.
Customer service
This is also one of their weakest points. They have different options – X (Twitter), email, and live chat support.
However, their email support is often slow and unreliable, and their live chat just sucks. It wasn’t perfect before, but it has gotten way worse since April, 2026. Absolutely unreliable customer service.
Look at me begging their AI bot to take over our chat as the humans were just ghosting the chat.
Funnily enough, their X account is faster and more useful! That’s a clown show right there.
Total rating: 5/10
Grey
I call these guys the “Apple (iOS)” of Nigerian payment solutions. They work like Apple. They don’t raise your hopes, and they don’t fuck up. They simply work the way you expect a normal Nigerian payment solution to work. Lols.
How fast you get your money
Within 2 business days. Pretty standard stuff amongst its competitors!
Fees
Expensive, but still manageable. They don’t do freebies, and they are upfront about it. They charge 0.8% fee (Minimum of $2, Maximum of $10).
As for conversion from USD to Naira, they charge 1% fee (capped at a maximum of $6 per swap).
They also charge 35 naira to withdraw from your Grey Naira account to your bank account. They love money! Don’t they?
Their exchange rate is also decent. Similar to its competitors.
General functionality
It simply works. No drama, and no headache.
Customer service
After surviving Geegpay customer support, I became emotional when their live chat agent attended to me within minutes. Its live chat is good. I haven’t tested their email support yet.
However, note that to access their human chat support, you have to also navigate their AI preset automation buttons. But you simply need to get to where you can actually type, then you can ask to talk to a human agent.
Total rating: 7/10
Cleva
How fast you get your money
Within 2 business days. Pretty standard stuff amongst its competitors!
Fees
Withdrawing from Upwork is free.
Their conversion to Naira is also free. Though if you want to convert your USD to Naira, you will transfer it straight to your Nigerian bank (which will trigger stamp duty charges for over 10k deposits).
Basically, Cleva won’t charge you a dime!
Apart from the Federal Government’s imposed stamp duty of 50 Naira for transfers above 10,000, which isn’t Cleva’s income by the way.
Also, their conversion rate is decent – just like their competitors.
General functionality
The interface is decent, but not as smooth as the likes of Grey, CadRemit, etc., and it rarely gives any issues.
Customer service
Similar to Grey’s, they have a live chat option, which works well. However, note that to access their human chat support, you have to also navigate their AI preset automation buttons. But you simply need to get to where you can actually type, then you can ask to talk to a human agent.
Total rating: 8.3/10
Africhange
How fast you get your money
Within 2 business days. Pretty standard stuff amongst its competitors!
Fees
Unclear for now, for it’s been two times I used them to withdraw from Upwork. However, withdrawal from Upwork seems to be free. Conversion to Naira also seems to be free. But withdrawing to your Nigerian Naira bank account costs a whopping 1,000 Naira, which is a little bit problematic.
Also, their exchange rate is good. It can be higher than most of its competitors sometimes. Another thing to note is that if you want to buy USD from your Naira account, their exchange rate is often much better than that of most of their competitors. This is actually where I think they shine the most, as the exchange rate from USD to Naira often fluctuates, and sometimes, some of their competitors could have slightly higher rates.
They also have a minimum transaction limit of $10 if you want to convert to Naira.
General functionality
It has a nice UI, but you might experience some functionality issues. For starters, their login might give you issues sometimes — I mean, you could log in sometimes and be logged out in seconds. Also, viewing your transaction history might be difficult, although you could download your account statement to circumvent that.
Customer service
Like all companies on this list, they have email support. However, their live chat option is good, and the UI is top-notch. Just navigate your way around their AI preset automation, and you will be fine.
Total rating: 7.5/10
LemFi
How fast you get your money
The first time I tried it, it took a few business days for me to receive the money. However, the second time I tried, it took 2 business days (albeit around 7 pm of the second day, whilst its competitors usually release the money around 3 pm of the second day)
Fees
From my experience so far, it is FREE all-through — even till it reaches your Nigerian bank account. Also, their exchange rate is on par with most of its competitors.
However, for those who want to use Lemfi to buy USD from their Naira account, the exchange rate from Naira to USD is diabolical!
General functionality
Simple and basic UI, but it works. Nothing out of the ordinary, and no special feature.
Customer service
Good luck finding live chat support, as it doesn’t exist here. In fact, you only help articles on their app. On their website, you can find their emails. I tried sending an email and they responded after 7-8 hours.
Total rating: 6.6/10
GrabrFi
How fast you get your money
Within 2 business days. Pretty standard stuff amongst its competitors!
Fees
Withdrawal from Upwork seems to be free; however, converting your USD to Naira (which will deposit the money directly into your bank account) costs $1 per conversion.
Also, their exchange rate is often lower than that of their competitors, which is not good. It is definitely much higher than that of Upwork or Payoneer, but still lesser that its competitors (though not by much – like 5-20naira difference at best).
Also, they don’t allow you to withdraw anything below $5 from your dollar account. So that could be a problem if you only deposited less than that from Upwork.
General functionality
Nice, but sometimes the login process can be very problematic with multiple verification issues. They also have robust features – though I don’t know how much of that works as intended.
Customer service
Again, no live chat support. You only have help articles and email support. I tried their email support, and let’s just say – it isn’t the quickest. They replied the next day (after 24 hours)
Total rating: 6/10
CadRemit
How fast do you get your money
Within 2 business days. Pretty standard stuff amongst its competitors!
Fees
Everything seems to be free here too. The exchange rate is also similar to most of its competitors. They also have a decent loyalty program.
General functionality
Really nice UI. Perhaps my favourite. Clean, simple, and intuitive. The designers tried with this.
Customer service
No live chat support, but when I tried their email support (via the contact customer support button), I was blown away. They responded within 7 minutes. Email support fa!
Total rating: 8.7/10
Final Ranking:
🥇👑CadRemit – 8.7/10 (The best, for now)
🥈Cleva – 8.3/10
🥉Africhange – 7.5/10
Grey – 7/10
LemFi – 6.6/10
GrabrFi – 6/10
Raenest (Geegpay) – 5/10
Payoneer – 4.8/10 (The worst, for now).
These rankings could change at any moment. For example, if I had written this article a few months earlier, Geegpay could be third on the list. So the list is dynamic and will be updated as things change.