VERVE HITS 70 MILLION PAYMENT CARDS IN NIGERIA, CONSOLIDATES MARKET LEADERSHIP

Verve International, Africa’s first and largest domestic payment scheme, and a growing reference point in the global realm of domestic payment schemes, has announced a significant new growth milestone, further consolidating its market share in Nigeria in terms of payment card issuance and transactions.

Verve Payment Cards in Nigeria, Africa’s largest consumer market and its pioneer country of issuance, have now surpassed 70 million issued payment cards. This achievement comes 15 months after the scheme announced it had issued 50 million payment cards in Nigeria in July last year, representing a 40% year-on-year growth in issuance volumes.

In recent years, Verve has grown to become the payment card of choice across various tiers of banking services, particularly within Nigeria’s burgeoning fintech and neobank sectors. This success is driven by strategic partnerships with commercial and microfinance banks, fintechs, Other Financial Institutions (OFIs), and the public sector. Verve’s sustained innovation and understanding of local market needs have been key to this growth.

As Africa’s leading domestic payment card scheme, Verve remains focused on addressing Africa’s unique market challenges by providing secure and cost-effective payment solutions for individuals and businesses. It offers both virtual and physical cards that facilitate payments for an increasing number of international services in local currency. In the last three years, Verve has made significant strides in this regard, achieving merchant acceptance with platforms such as Google, Spotify, Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, and Flywire, among others. These partnerships highlight Verve’s commitment to providing African users convenient access to global services in local denominations.

Outside of Nigeria, Verve cardholders enjoy the benefit of using their cards in over 21 other African countries. This demonstrates Verve’s commitment to seamless transactions across the continent, particularly for a critical mass of consumers, while driving value and efficiency for African financial institutions. Noteworthy are the rapidly expanding issuing and acceptance partnerships across East Africa, including major financial institutions like KCB Group and, more recently, Equity Bank, along with a growing network of savings and credit societies (SACCOs) in Kenya and Uganda.

Speaking on this latest milestone, Chief Executive Officer of Verve International, Vincent Ogbunude, emphasized Verve’s dedication to making transactions more secure and convenient for customers across Africa and beyond, while delivering exceptional business value to issuing and acquiring partners.

“At Verve International, we continue to deliver global-standard payment solutions tailored to the economic and operational realities of the African markets in which we operate. Through value-adding partnerships, we ensure our impact scales and enhances financial inclusion across the continent. We are thrilled to celebrate this phenomenal milestone of adding 20 million new payment cards in Nigeria, and we are grateful to our issuing partners and loyal cardholders,” Ogbunude said