5 Best APIs for Payment Integration in Nigeria

Fincra Identity is the identity management and verification feature set built into the Fincra API. It is not a standalone product — it is accessed using the same API credentials as Fincra payment services. Nigerian developers using Fincra for payments get identity verification capabilities included, enabling them to build compliant KYC flows without integrating a separate identity provider. What It Does Fincra Identity provides three core capabilities: (1) BVN Resolution — resolve a Nigerian Bank Verification Number to retrieve the associated identity details, enabling KYC verification against the CBN BVN database; (2) Bank Account Verification — verify that a Nigerian bank account number is valid and retrieve the account holder name via NIP lookup, preventing failed transfers before they happen; (3) Card BIN Resolution — look up a card BIN (Bank Identification Number) to identify the issuing bank, card network, card type, and country of origin for any card number prefix. How Developers Use It Fincra Identity endpoints are called using the same API key obtained from the Fincra Dashboard. Documentation is at docs.fincra.com under the Identity Management section. The same 50 req/sec rate limit applies. Sandbox and live environments are fully isolated as with all Fincra services. Pricing Included in the Fincra API subscription. Custom pricing based on volume — contact Fincra sales for current rates. Rate Limits 50 API calls per second, shared with all other Fincra API calls. HTTP 429 returned when exceeded. What Fincra Identity Does NOT Cover Unlike dedicated KYC providers such as Dojah, Smile Identity, or YouVerify, Fincra Identity does not provide: NIN verification, international passport verification, driver's licence lookup, liveness detection, document capture, or CAC business verification. For comprehensive KYC with selfie matching and multi-document support, a dedicated KYC provider is recommended. Challenges and Gotchas (1) Fincra Identity is only available to businesses that have an active Fincra account — you cannot use it without being a Fincra payments customer. (2) Feature set is narrower than dedicated KYC providers. (3) Live mode requires completing full Fincra compliance onboarding first. (4) No standalone pricing — bundled with Fincra payment costs. Company Background Fincra is a CBN PSSP-licensed payment gateway incorporated in the US (Fincra Inc.) and operating in Nigeria and across Africa. The company provides payment infrastructure to African businesses and fintechs, and includes identity verification as part of its end-to-end compliance toolkit. FAQs Q: Is Fincra Identity a separate product from Fincra payments? A: No. It is a feature set within the Fincra API accessed with the same credentials. Q: Can I use Fincra Identity without using Fincra for payments? A: Not independently — you need an active Fincra business account to access these endpoints. Q: Does Fincra Identity support NIN verification? A: Not currently. BVN resolution, bank account verification, and card BIN lookup are the currently documented identity features. Q: What is the rate limit? A: 50 requests per second, shared with all Fincra API calls. Fincra Identity's bank account verification feature resolves the account holder name associated with a provided Nigerian bank account number and bank sort code, confirming that the account belongs to the expected recipient before initiating a disbursement. This pre-disbursement verification step prevents both accidental wrong-account transfers (from typographical errors in account numbers) and deliberate fraud (where a bad actor substitutes their account number for a legitimate recipient). For Nigerian platforms processing large volumes of payouts — salary disbursements, vendor payments, refund processing — the operational cost savings from preventing failed and misdirected transfers justifies the verification step. Card BIN lookup from Fincra Identity allows platforms to identify the issuing bank, card type (debit/credit), card scheme (Visa/Mastercard/Verve), and country of origin from the first six digits of a card number before the transaction is processed. This BIN intelligence enables routing decisions — selecting the optimal payment processor for a card type, applying different processing flows for international versus domestic cards, flagging potentially high-risk card origins — that improve authorization rates and fraud management before authorization is even attempted.

Kora Identity is the multi-country identity verification feature set within the Kora API (formerly Korapay). It enables Nigerian and pan-African fintechs to verify individuals and businesses across four African countries — Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa — using a single API key shared with Kora payment services. The identity service provides instant verification against government databases using cutting-edge encryption and security protocols. What It Does Kora Identity offers two categories of verification: individual KYC and business KYB. For Nigeria: BVN (Bank Verification Number), NIN (National Identification Number), vNIN (Virtual NIN), and phone number verification. For Ghana: International Passport, SSNIT number, Voters Card, and Driver's Licence verification. For Kenya: International Passport, National ID, phone number, and Tax PIN verification. For South Africa: SAID (South African ID Number) verification. For Nigeria KYB: CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) business registration verification. How Developers Use It Same credentials as Kora payments — authenticate with Bearer token using Secret Key. Documentation at developers.korapay.com/docs/verify-customers-businesses. Verification costs are deducted per lookup from the Kora account balance. Live mode and Identity service activation required in dashboard before using in production. An OpenAPI specification is available at developers.korapay.com/llms.txt. Pricing Per-verification pricing deducted from Kora account balance. No public rate card. Contact Kora for identity service pricing. Nigeria-Specific Verification Coverage Nigeria has the most comprehensive coverage: BVN (tied to all Nigerian bank accounts), NIN (national ID from NIMC), vNIN (privacy-safe virtual NIN that can be shared without exposing full NIN), and phone number verification. CAC business verification confirms company registration with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission. Challenges and Gotchas (1) Identity service must be separately activated in the Kora dashboard — not automatically available with a new account. (2) No liveness detection, document capture, or selfie match — Kora Identity is data-matching only. (3) Per-lookup billing means costs scale with verification volume. (4) For full biometric KYC (selfie + document), use Smile Identity or Dojah instead. Company Background Kora (formerly Korapay) is a CBN-licensed Nigerian fintech company with multi-country operations. The identity product is part of a broader strategy to be the end-to-end payment and compliance infrastructure for pan-African fintechs. FAQs Q: Does Kora Identity support NIN verification? A: Yes. NIN and vNIN (Virtual NIN) are both supported for Nigeria. Q: Can I verify a business registration (CAC)? A: Yes. CAC verification for Nigerian businesses is supported. Q: Is Kora Identity available in Kenya? A: Yes. Passport, National ID, phone, and Tax PIN verification for Kenya are supported. Q: Do I need a separate API key? A: No. The same Bearer token used for Kora payments is used for identity verification. Kora Identity's multi-country verification scope — covering BVN and NIN in Nigeria, SSNIT and Voter Card in Ghana, and National ID in Kenya — means that Nigerian fintechs expanding to multiple African markets can use the same identity verification provider that powers their Nigerian KYC workflow for their expansion markets, rather than establishing separate identity verification relationships in each new country. This KYC infrastructure continuity reduces integration complexity as platforms expand their geographic footprint. The bank account verification capability within Kora Identity — resolving the account holder name for a provided account number and sort code — prevents payment failures due to account number typos and reduces fraud from account number substitution. For Nigerian platforms processing disbursements to many recipients, pre-validating account details before initiating transfers reduces failed disbursement rates and the operational burden of investigating and correcting failed transfers. CAC business verification through Kora Identity allows platforms serving Nigerian business customers to verify that a provided company name and RC number correspond to a registered and active business entity in the Corporate Affairs Commission database. For B2B lending platforms, supply chain finance providers, and corporate onboarding workflows, CAC verification provides an automated corporate KYC data point that replaces manual document review.

Saleor is an open source, API-first headless e-commerce platform that exposes all commerce functionality through a GraphQL API. Unlike traditional e-commerce platforms that bundle a frontend and backend together, Saleor separates the commerce engine (API) from the presentation layer — enabling developers to build custom storefronts with any technology while the API handles all the complex commerce logic: products, inventory, pricing, discounts, orders, customers, payments, and fulfillment. The GraphQL API provides a typed, self-documenting interface to all commerce operations. Products and their variants (by size, color, or other attributes) are fully managed through the API, along with structured product metadata, category hierarchies, collection groupings, and media management. The inventory system tracks stock levels across multiple warehouses and automatically handles stock reservation during checkout. Order management through the API covers the full order lifecycle — from cart creation and checkout through payment capture, fulfillment assignment, shipping, and returns. The order events system provides a complete audit trail of every state change in an order, which is important for compliance and customer service in Nigerian e-commerce operations. The payment system is gateway-agnostic and plugin-based, allowing integration with any payment provider through a standard interface. For Nigerian e-commerce platforms, this means integrating Paystack, Flutterwave, or other Nigerian payment gateways through Saleor's payment plugin system — maintaining a unified order and payment record regardless of the payment provider used. Multi-channel commerce support enables a single Saleor instance to serve multiple sales channels (website, mobile app, marketplace) with different pricing, availability, and currency settings per channel. This is valuable for Nigerian retailers operating both domestic and export channels, or serving different customer segments with different pricing structures. For Nigerian technology companies building custom e-commerce solutions for clients — rather than deploying off-the-shelf platforms — Saleor provides a production-ready commerce API foundation that eliminates months of custom backend development. The MIT open source license means there are no licensing costs for self-hosted deployments, making it commercially viable for agencies building for Nigerian clients. Nigerian marketplaces and multi-vendor platforms can leverage Saleor's vendor management capabilities to manage multiple seller catalogs, configure commission structures, and route orders to the appropriate fulfillment party — all through the GraphQL API. Saleor Cloud offers a managed hosting option for teams that prefer not to run their own infrastructure, with a free development tier suitable for prototyping and a paid tier for production deployments. The self-hosted option via Docker is fully supported and provides complete control over the infrastructure. Saleor's storefront starter templates and SDKs for React, Next.js, and other frameworks accelerate the frontend development that sits on top of the GraphQL API. Nigerian agencies building custom e-commerce storefronts for clients can start from battle-tested starter code rather than building from scratch, focusing customization effort on the brand-specific design and functionality rather than boilerplate commerce logic. The permission system in Saleor uses fine-grained permissions for dashboard and API access — allowing Nigerian e-commerce operators to give warehouse staff access to order fulfillment features without exposing product pricing or customer data. This role-based access is important for Nigerian businesses with diverse staff roles accessing the same platform. Saleor's channel system supports multi-currency commerce natively, enabling Nigerian e-commerce businesses selling internationally to manage NGN pricing for domestic customers and USD or GBP pricing for export and diaspora markets through a single backend — with automatic currency-appropriate display based on the customer's channel.

B2B commerce API for informal retail and FMCG distribution. Sabi enables retailers and distributors to manage inventory, orders, and payments through APIs. Connects informal retailers with wholesalers and suppliers for streamlined procurement.