Cleva alternatives in Nigeria

The strongest Cleva alternatives in Nigeria are Raenest, Grey, LemFi and Daya Borders, and what separates them is what each one takes out of an incoming dollar payment. Raenest charges $1 flat on an ACH deposit, Grey charges 0.8% capped at $10, and Daya Borders charges 0% with no cap. Cleva charges 0.8%, capped at $5.

Every fee on this page came off each company's own pricing page on 15 September 2026, not from a review site. If you're still working out how to take foreign payments at all, how to get paid by international clients in Nigeria covers the whole picture before you narrow it down to one app.

Why do people leave Cleva?

People leave Cleva over three things, and all three turn up repeatedly in Cleva's own app store reviews: money held during account review with no timeline, support that replies late and without a fix, and a card discontinued with a fresh $3 charge to replace it. Cleva sits at 4.7 on the App Store and 4.6 on Google Play, so this is a minority experience rather than the normal one.

The pattern is worth knowing before you move, because most of it is about verification rather than fees:

• Accounts disabled during identity checks while a balance sits inside. One reviewer describes $800 still unreturned after more than a month.
• Verification refused on documents the reviewer says were correct, with support replying slowly and without offering a route forward.
• Cards deactivated after three failed transactions, which means paying the $3 card creation fee again.
• A card product discontinued and the balance moved across, with another $3 charged for the replacement.

None of that is a reason to move on its own. It's a reason to know where else you can receive dollars before you need to.

What does each Cleva alternative charge to receive dollars?

Daya Borders is the cheapest of the seven on an incoming dollar payment, at 0% with no cap, and LemFi also charges nothing to add money. Raenest charges $1 flat on ACH after one free deposit a month. Cleva and Grey both charge 0.8%, but Cleva caps it at $5 and Grey at $10, so Cleva is the cheaper of those two on a large payment.

The caps change the answer depending on the size of your invoice. On a $5,000 payment, Cleva's 0.8% stops at $5 and Grey's stops at $10. On a $500 payment, Cleva and Grey both charge $4 and Raenest charges $1, which is where a flat fee wins. Daya Borders charges nothing at either size, because Daya Borders has no percentage and no cap to reach.

Payoneer is the most expensive of the seven for a Nigerian freelancer, and the cost isn't in the receiving fee. Payoneer charges up to 2% to withdraw a USD balance to a Nigerian bank account, and 1% to 2% to convert between currencies. On $1,000 received and cashed out, that's up to $30 before the exchange rate is counted at all.

What does it cost to move the money into naira?

Getting dollars into your Nigerian bank account carries two charges: a conversion fee when the dollars become naira, and a withdrawal fee on the transfer itself. Raenest charges 0.5% to convert, capped at $2.70, then nothing to withdraw. Grey charges 0% to 1% to convert, capped at $6, then ₦35 to withdraw. Cleva charges nothing to withdraw, but doesn't publish a conversion fee at all.

Here's what each one publishes, as of 15 September 2026:

1. Raenest: 0.5% to convert dollars to naira, capped at $2.70, minimum $0.25. Withdrawal to a Nigerian bank account is free.
2. Grey: 0% to 1% to convert, capped at $6. Withdrawal to a Nigerian bank account is ₦35, instant.
3. Payoneer: 1% to 2% to convert, and up to 2% to withdraw to a Nigerian bank account.
4. Cleva: withdrawal to a Nigerian bank account is free, and ₦30 for a naira-to-naira transfer, plus the ₦50 government stamp duty on anything from ₦10,000 up. The conversion fee isn't published.
5. LemFi: no published conversion fee. LemFi says the final number shows in the app before you confirm.
6. Chipper Cash: no published conversion fee, and no separate naira withdrawal fee published either.
7. Daya Borders: no published conversion fee percentage. Daya Borders publishes a live rate instead, on daya.co/borders, next to Grey's and Cleva's on the same screen.

Three of the seven publish nothing at all about what converting costs: Cleva, LemFi and Chipper Cash. Grey and Raenest publish a capped percentage, Payoneer publishes a range, and Daya Borders publishes the rate itself rather than the percentage. Those two are different kinds of useful. A capped percentage lets you work out the cost before you convert. A live rate tells you what you'd actually receive today, which is the number you can't get from a percentage without knowing the rate underneath it. On any provider that publishes neither, the check is the same: compare the rate the app is offering against the mid-market rate, which is the plain USD to NGN rate you'll see on Google or on Wise. Whatever the gap is between those two numbers, that's what the conversion is costing you. Understanding the naira exchange rate goes through how those rates are set.

Where does Daya Borders fit?

Daya Borders charges 0% on incoming dollars and euros, with no cap and no conditions attached, and that's the lowest receiving fee of the seven providers on this page. Cleva charges 0.8% capped at $5 on the same payment, and Grey charges 0.8% capped at $10. On a $2,000 invoice that comes to $5 at Cleva, $10 at Grey and nothing at Daya Borders.

When that comparison was last stamped, at 17:34 WAT on 14 September 2026, the rate was ₦1,367.78 per dollar at Daya Borders, ₦1,358.01 at Grey and ₦1,358.00 at Cleva. On $1,000 that works out at ₦1,367,780 against ₦1,358,010 and ₦1,358,000, so about ₦9,780 more on the same payment. These are indicative rates and they move through the day, so the block above and the live comparison on daya.co/borders are the current version rather than these figures.

If your income comes through Upwork, how to withdraw money from Upwork in Nigeria walks through that route on its own.

Can Nigerians use Wise instead of Cleva?

No. Wise doesn't let you hold a balance if you live in Nigeria. Nigeria isn't on Wise's own list of countries where you can open a Wise balance, which means you can't be paid into a Wise account from Nigeria and you can't get the Wise card. Wise is a way to send money out of a country, not a dollar account you can receive into and hold.

This one catches people out, because Wise is the name everyone knows for cheap international transfers. Your client in the US or the UK can absolutely use Wise to pay you. The money lands in your Nigerian bank account in naira at the end of it, not in a dollar balance you control.

What about a virtual dollar card?

A virtual dollar card is a separate decision from where your dollars land, and it's worth treating it as one. Four of the providers on this page issue a card, and this is what each charges as of 15 September 2026:

• Raenest: $3 to create, $0.70 per successful transaction, 2% plus $0.40 on international merchants, no monthly fee.
• Cleva: $3 to create, 2% plus $0.80 on foreign transactions, $0.80 per authorisation, $50 to dispute a charge.
• Grey: $5 to create, $1 each time you fund it, 2% plus $0.50 on cross-border spending, no monthly fee.
• Chipper Cash: $0.90 per successful transaction, and ₦250 when a transaction is declined.

Where your dollars land and which app issues your card don't have to be the same choice. Plenty of Nigerian freelancers receive in one app and keep a card in another. The receiving fee is the one that grows with what you earn, so that's the one to optimise first.

Which Cleva alternative should you pick?

It comes down to how much you're paid at a time and what you do with it once it arrives. Five situations cover most people:

1. You're paid small amounts often, under roughly $500 a time. Raenest's $1 flat ACH fee beats a percentage at that size, and one deposit a month is free.
2. You want the lowest receiving fee whatever the invoice size. Daya Borders takes 0% on incoming dollars and euros with no cap.
3. You convert to naira straight away and want that cost published in advance. Raenest at 0.5% capped at $2.70, or Grey at up to 1% capped at $6.
4. You need pounds as well as dollars. Cleva, Grey, Raenest and LemFi all hold GBP. Daya Borders holds dollars and euros.
5. Your client's platform only pays out through Payoneer. Use Payoneer for that, then move the money out quickly, because the up-to-2% withdrawal to a Nigerian bank is the most expensive single step on this page.

Whichever you pick, the fee that matters most is the one charged on money coming in, because that one scales with what you earn. A card fee and a withdrawal fee are fixed costs you'll barely feel next to 0.8% of every invoice.

Is Cleva still operating, and is your money safe there?

Yes, Cleva is operating. Cleva raised $1.5m in pre-seed funding in January 2024, is backed by Y Combinator, and secured an International Money Transfer Operator licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria, reported in March 2025. An IMTO licence is the CBN permission a company needs to move money into Nigeria from abroad. Cleva holds 4.7 on the App Store across about 1,400 ratings, and 4.6 on Google Play across about 9,300.

The complaints in this article are about verification holds and slow support, not about the company going anywhere. One practical thing: if your money is held at Cleva right now, opening an account somewhere else doesn't release it. Keep that case open with Cleva and set up the new account alongside it rather than instead of it.