Africa's Talking
Africa's Talking API is the continent's most comprehensive African-built communications platform, providing a unified API for SMS, USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), voice, airtime distribution, data bundles, mobile payments, and IoT connectivity across multiple African countries including Nigeria. Founded in Nairobi in 2010, Africa's Talking has grown into the definitive African developer communications platform, with direct carrier integrations across Nigerian mobile networks and a team that deeply understands African telecommunications infrastructure, regulatory requirements, and user behavior. For Nigerian developers building communications-dependent applications, Africa's Talking combines capabilities that no other platform offers in a single Africa-native API.
SMS API through Africa's Talking delivers messages to all four Nigerian mobile networks — MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile — with competitive per-message pricing, DND compliance, sender ID support, and delivery reporting. The SMS API also supports inbound SMS through shortcodes and long numbers, enabling two-way SMS applications. Nigerian businesses running SMS surveys, customer service through SMS, or subscription management via SMS commands can implement complete inbound-outbound SMS workflows.
USSD API is Africa's Talking's most distinctive capability for the Nigerian market — providing the ability to build USSD menu applications accessible from any mobile phone, including the most basic feature phones, without internet connectivity. USSD sessions are initiated by dialing a short code (like *123#) and allow users to navigate menu-driven applications through key presses. Nigerian fintech apps, government services, healthcare platforms, and agricultural information services that need to reach rural Nigerians without smartphones or internet access can build USSD applications through Africa's Talking's USSD API that work on any mobile phone on any Nigerian network.
Airtime distribution API allows programmatically sending airtime (mobile credit) to any Nigerian phone number on MTN, Airtel, Glo, or 9mobile. This capability is transformational for Nigerian platforms that use airtime as an incentive or reward: survey platforms paying respondents in airtime, cashback apps giving customers airtime rewards, employee recognition programs distributing airtime bonuses, and humanitarian organizations distributing crisis support as mobile credit. Airtime can be sent to individual numbers or uploaded in bulk, with amounts in NGN.
Voice API provides programmatic control of phone calls in Nigeria — making outbound calls, receiving inbound calls, building IVR menus with touch-tone navigation, and connecting calls between parties. Nigerian call centers, telehealth platforms building phone consultation systems, and appointment reminder services sending automated voice calls use the Africa's Talking Voice API to manage phone call workflows programmatically.
Mobile data bundle distribution allows programmatically sending mobile data bundles to Nigerian phone numbers — a capability unique among API providers and highly relevant for Nigerian platforms that reward users with data instead of cash or airtime. Nigerian fintech apps, loyalty platforms, and consumer apps that give users data rewards for completing actions can automate data bundle distribution at scale through Africa's Talking.
Sandbox environment enables free development and testing against realistic simulated carrier responses before going live, allowing Nigerian developers to build and test complete application flows including USSD menus and airtime distribution without real API costs during development. The sandbox simulates the same response format as production, enabling confident go-live after testing.