3 Best APIs for Card in Nigeria

Interswitch Group is Nigeria's pioneering payment infrastructure company and the creator of the Verve card network — the most widely used debit card in Nigeria with over 35 million cardholders. Founded in 2002 and listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Interswitch owns and operates Nigeria's core payment switching infrastructure, connecting virtually all Nigerian banks. The company provides developer access to its infrastructure through the Interswitch Developer Center and the Quickteller Business platform. What the API Does The Interswitch API ecosystem covers multiple products: (1) Quickteller SVA — access to 3,000+ billers for airtime vending, utility payments, and transfers to all Nigerian banks and selected African mobile wallets; (2) Quickteller Business — a comprehensive payment gateway for card acceptance, USSD, QR, hosted fields, and mobile SDKs; (3) Virtual Accounts — for NGN collections via dedicated account numbers; (4) NIP Instant Transfers — for bank-to-bank transfers across the Nigerian banking system. How Developers Use It Developers sign up at docs.interswitchgroup.com, create an app in the developer console, and obtain a Client ID and Secret Key for OAuth 2.0 authentication. The API uses standard OAuth 2.0 authorization to generate access tokens. A sandbox environment is available for testing with test credentials. Integration options include REST API, hosted fields (for PCI-compliant card capture), web gateway, and mobile SDKs. Pricing Integration is free — no setup or monthly fees. Local transactions (cards, USSD, QR): 1.5% capped at ₦2,000. 7.5% VAT applies to all transaction fees. Volume-based custom pricing available for high-volume merchants — contact sales. Authentication OAuth 2.0 using Client ID and Secret Key from the developer console. Access tokens are generated and included in API request headers. Token expiry and refresh are managed per OAuth 2.0 standards. Compliance Interswitch is CBN-licensed, PCIDSS certified, and regulated as a switching and processing company under Nigerian financial regulations. As an NSE-listed company it is subject to SEC and public disclosure requirements. Challenges and Gotchas (1) OAuth 2.0 is more complex to implement than simple Bearer token APIs — requires proper token management. (2) Quickteller SVA and Quickteller Business are separate products with different documentation. (3) Settlement takes up to 48 hours — not instant. (4) Verve card processing is Interswitch's core strength; for international card processing, competitors like Paystack may offer better rates. Company Background Interswitch was founded in 2002 by Mitchell Elegbe in Lagos. The company processes hundreds of millions of transactions monthly and serves over 40,000 merchants across Nigeria. Interswitch is valued at over $1 billion, making it one of Africa's fintech unicorns. Products include Verve, Quickteller, Paydirect, and eClat. FAQs Q: What is the fee for local card transactions? A: 1.5% capped at ₦2,000, plus 7.5% VAT on the fee. Q: Does Interswitch support 3,000+ billers? A: Yes. Quickteller SVA gives access to airtime, utilities, and thousands of Nigerian billers. Q: What authentication does Interswitch use? A: OAuth 2.0. You get a Client ID and Secret Key from the developer console to generate access tokens. Q: Is there a sandbox? A: Yes. Available at docs.interswitchgroup.com with test credentials. Interswitch's Verve card network — with over 40 million active cards issued by virtually every Nigerian bank — is one of the most important domestic payment assets in the country. Merchants and platforms integrated with Interswitch gain acceptance of Verve cards, which are the primary debit cards for millions of Nigerian bank customers who may not have international Visa or Mastercard credentials. For consumer-facing Nigerian businesses where Verve card acceptance determines accessibility to a large portion of the Nigerian banked population, Interswitch integration is often essential rather than optional. The NIP (NIBSS Instant Payment) switch that Interswitch helps power enables instant settlement between banks across Nigeria, with transactions completing within seconds rather than the 24-hour windows of older payment systems. For Nigerian businesses where payment confirmation delays affect operational workflows — logistics companies confirming payment before dispatch, service providers starting work after payment, retailers managing inventory allocation — NIP instant payment confirmation through Interswitch's infrastructure removes settlement uncertainty from business operations. Interswitch's three-plus decades of operation in Nigeria represent institutional knowledge of Nigerian payment infrastructure that newer entrants cannot match. The company has navigated multiple CBN regulatory cycles, multiple technology infrastructure shifts, and the evolution of Nigerian consumer payment behavior from cash to cards to mobile. For Nigerian enterprises selecting long-term payment infrastructure partners, this institutional longevity and demonstrated resilience is a meaningful factor in vendor selection.

Squad is a Nigerian payment gateway and developer-first payment infrastructure platform operated by HabariPay Limited, the fintech subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) — the parent company of Guaranty Trust Bank, one of Nigeria's Tier 1 commercial banks. This institutional backing gives Squad a unique position in the Nigerian fintech ecosystem: it combines the regulatory standing of a CBN-licensed commercial bank group with a modern API-first developer experience. Squad is available at squadco.com and provides documentation at docs.squadco.com. The Squad API is RESTful with JSON payloads. Authentication is via Bearer Token — developers obtain a secret key from the Squad dashboard and pass it in every request as Authorization: Bearer sk_test_xxxx (sandbox) or Authorization: Bearer sk_live_xxxx (production). All amounts are passed in Naira (NGN), unlike some Nigerian gateways that require amounts in Kobo. Squad's payment gateway supports card payments (Verve, Visa, Mastercard), bank transfers, and USSD — the three primary payment channels used by Nigerian consumers. The standard integration follows a three-step flow: initialize a transaction by posting to the Squad initiate endpoint with amount, email, and a unique transaction reference; display the Squad checkout widget to the customer; and verify the transaction on your server after the customer completes payment. Squad provides both a hosted checkout page and an embeddable inline SDK for seamless checkout experiences. One of Squad's most notable differentiators is its fee structure. The payment gateway charges a percentage fee capped at ₦1,500 per transaction — lower than Paystack (₦2,000 cap) and Monnify (₦2,000 cap). For virtual account collections, Squad charges a percentage capped at ₦1,000, which is again among the lowest caps in the Nigerian market for bank transfer collections. Payment links (used for social commerce and invoicing) are charged at 1% for local transactions and 3.5% for international transactions. This pricing advantage makes Squad particularly attractive for businesses processing high-value transactions, where the cap limits the absolute cost per transaction regardless of size. Squad's Virtual Accounts feature assigns a dedicated bank account number to each customer for use in collections. Businesses can create virtual accounts for individual customers — when a customer transfers any amount to their dedicated account, the Squad webhook fires and the balance is credited in real time. This is widely used by Nigerian savings apps, investment platforms, and bill payment services where customers top up wallets via bank transfer. The Subscription API allows platforms to create recurring billing products. When a customer first pays via Squad, the platform receives a unique charge token tied to that customer's card. Future charges can be triggered by passing this token without requiring the customer to re-enter card details — enabling automatic monthly subscriptions, usage-based billing, and installment plans for Nigerian consumers. Squad also provides a Payouts API for disbursing funds to any Nigerian bank account. Developers submit a destination bank code, account number, and amount, and Squad executes the transfer. Payout pricing is competitive and the API supports both single and bulk transfers. The BVN verification endpoint available through Squad allows platforms to look up a Bank Verification Number and return the associated name and basic identity information. This is commonly used by Nigerian lending products and fintech apps to confirm user identity as part of CBN-required KYC processes. The Squad sandbox environment provides full test mode access. Developers can test all features — gateway payments, virtual accounts, subscriptions, payouts, and BVN verification — using test credentials without processing real transactions. Moving to live requires completing Squad's business onboarding, including submitting CAC registration, director BVN, and a valid business bank account. From a compliance perspective, HabariPay Limited is a CBN-licensed Payment Service Provider operating under the regulatory oversight of the Central Bank of Nigeria. GTCO's banking license adds an additional layer of institutional compliance. Squad is also PCI-DSS certified, ensuring that card payment data is processed and stored to the highest security standards. Squad runs an annual Hackathon for Nigerian students and early-career developers — Squad by GTBank Hackathon — providing cash prizes and API credits to winners. This investment in the developer community has built significant goodwill among Nigeria's emerging developer ecosystem. Known challenges: Squad's documentation, while functional, is less comprehensive than Paystack's. Some advanced integration patterns (split payments, multi-vendor marketplace flows) are not as fully documented. The Squad developer community is smaller than Paystack's, which can make troubleshooting harder for niche use cases. Frequently Asked Questions: Is Squad backed by GTBank? Yes — Squad is operated by HabariPay Limited, which is a subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), the same holding company that owns GTBank. What is the fee cap advantage? Squad's gateway fee is capped at ₦1,500 versus ₦2,000 for Paystack and Monnify — meaning on large transactions, you save ₦500 per collection. Does Squad support dollar transactions? Squad supports international card payments (Visa/Mastercard). Settlement is in NGN. Can I test Squad without registering a business? Yes — create a free developer account and use the sandbox with test credentials before submitting any business documents.