Google Pay Arrives in Nigeria With Four Banks

Google Wallet, including Google Pay, is now available in Nigeria for Android and Wear OS users, Google said in a blog post on 28 October. Users can add supported cards, tap to pay in shops, pay in apps and online, and keep loyalty cards, event tickets and boarding passes in the app. United Bank for Africa switched the service on a day earlier, on 27 October, and says it was the first Nigerian bank to do so, according to Business Post.

Which cards work

Google's help page lists four banks and the card types each one supports:

• FirstBank: Mastercard debit cards.
• GTBank: Mastercard debit and prepaid cards.
• Zenith Bank: Mastercard credit, debit and prepaid cards.
• UBA: Mastercard credit, debit and prepaid cards, plus Visa prepaid cards.

The page adds that each bank decides whether its cards work with Google Wallet, so a card can still fail to set up.

That list is narrower than some of the launch messaging. Visa said eligible Visa cardholders at participating Nigerian institutions can now use Google Pay, in a sponsored statement carried by Premium Times, but Google's list names only UBA's Visa prepaid card, as Techpoint Africa pointed out. Verve cards, run by Interswitch, and AfriGO cards are not on the list, and neither are cards issued by fintechs such as OPay, Moniepoint, Kuda and PalmPay, according to Techpoint. That gap matters: Verve accounted for 54% of cards used for PoS and online payments in Nigeria between 2019 and 2022, Techpoint reported, citing Statista data.

The terminal problem

Tapping a phone needs two things: an Android phone with NFC, and a contactless terminal at the till. Malik Asamu, chief executive of CashAfrica, estimates that contactless makes up about 0.1% of payments in Nigeria and that about half of the Android phones in the country have NFC, according to Techpoint. Many PoS terminals have no contactless hardware, and merchants pay to upgrade them.

Mastercard said it brought Google Pay to Nigerian cardholders with Interswitch, which built the issuer connections, tokenisation and processing, and pitched the service at merchants that already have contactless terminals, Techpoint reported. None of the announcements names a PoS provider or acquirer whose terminals accept phone taps.

Limits are the other open question. Under a 2023 circular, the Central Bank of Nigeria caps contactless payments at ₦15,000 per transaction and ₦50,000 a day without a PIN or biometric check. Google Pay confirms each payment on the phone itself, but no bank has said how those limits apply to it, according to Techpoint.

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How it compares

South Africa became the first African country with Google Wallet about four years ago, with six banks at launch, Techpoint notes. Nigeria has had phone tap-to-pay before: ProvidusBank launched a similar service with Mastercard, Interswitch and Thales in 2022, and PalmPay piloted tap-to-pay on 1,000 terminals with CashAfrica in 2025. Online, Paystack enabled Google Pay for Nigerian businesses in September 2026, and Interswitch added it to its payment gateway in 2023.

On security, Visa says Google Pay uses a unique digital token in place of the card number during payments, so the number is not stored or shared. Google points to encryption and Find My Device, which can lock or wipe a lost phone. UBA's head of cards, Orry Seem, told Business Post that being first on Google Pay reflects the bank's aim to let customers transact locally and internationally.

What is still unknown

• When more banks, Verve and fintech-issued cards will be added.
• Which merchants' terminals accept a phone tap today, and how fast acquirers will upgrade.
• How the CBN's ₦15,000 and ₦50,000 contactless limits apply to payments confirmed on the phone.