A customer buys lunch, asks for the seller’s account number and opens a banking app to make payment. The seller waits for confirmation before handing over the food. When everything works, the process takes little time. When the network misbehaves, or a transfer takes longer than expected, both parties are left waiting.

This routine is familiar to Nigerians, from people buying food at roadside spots to customers shopping in supermarkets. Bank transfers have made paying by phone part of everyday life, but payment companies are working on another option that could make some transactions quicker: tapping a compatible phone against a payment terminal.

Interswitch is part of that effort. Through partnerships with banks and card networks, the Nigerian payment technology company is helping expand contactless payment infrastructure. Its work with Verve, alongside an earlier partnership involving ProvidusBank, Mastercard and Thales, shows how financial institutions are exploring ways to make paying with a phone more convenient.

The technology has been around for some time, but the challenge is getting it into more customers’ hands and making it useful at the places where they shop, eat and travel.

Making a payment with a tap

The idea is straightforward. A customer with a compatible smartphone and an eligible payment card can add the card to a supported service and use the phone to pay at a contactless terminal. The phone communicates with the terminal through near-field communication (NFC), a technology that allows compatible devices to exchange information when they are held close together.

Depending on the service, the customer may need to confirm the payment with a fingerprint, facial recognition or another security method. The transaction then goes through the relevant payment network and financial institutions for authorisation.

Tokenisation helps protect the process. Instead of using the original card number directly during a supported transaction, the system uses a substitute digital identifier. This reduces the exposure of sensitive card details, although it does not eliminate every form of payment fraud.

In October 2026, Verve announced a tokenisation solution that allows eligible cardholders to provision their cards on compatible mobile devices and pay at supported contactless terminals. Participating banks can also integrate tokenised payments into their digital banking services.

The announcement builds on earlier work in Nigeria. In September 2022, ProvidusBank, Mastercard, Interswitch and Thales launched a contactless payment service for customers using compatible smartphones and wearable devices. Mastercard provided its Digital Enablement Service, while Interswitch contributed tokenisation capabilities.

Making this work requires several players. Banks must enable eligible cards, payment networks must process transactions, and technology providers must connect the systems. Merchants also need terminals that accept contactless payments. So, while the idea is simple for the customer, using it depends on the right technology being in place on both sides of the transaction.

Why businesses may welcome the change

For businesses, payment convenience can affect the customer experience. A restaurant serving customers during the lunch rush, for example, has little time to spare when people are queuing to pay. A contactless option gives customers another way to complete a purchase without inserting a card or going through the steps involved in a bank transfer.

Transport is another possible use. At a recent Interswitch briefing, Wema Bank Executive Director Tunde Mabawonku pointed to public transport, including Lagos BRT and rail services, as areas where contactless payments could be useful. For commuters, tapping a compatible device to pay a fare could make boarding more convenient. However, that depends on transport operators adopting compatible systems and the relevant services becoming available.

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Banks also have a reason to explore the technology. Integrating tokenised payments into their digital services gives customers another way to use their eligible cards, while Interswitch and other payment providers can support the processing and infrastructure behind those transactions.

It is worth distinguishing tap-to-pay from tap-to-phone. With tap-to-pay, the customer taps a phone against a contactless terminal. With tap-to-phone, a merchant uses a compatible smartphone as the terminal to accept contactless payments. The two technologies address different needs, even though both use contactless communication.

The challenge of getting Nigerians to tap

Introducing a new payment option is one thing; convincing people to use it regularly is another. Many Nigerians already rely on transfers, USSD, cash and conventional POS payments. These methods are familiar to customers and merchants, so tap-to-pay will need to offer a clear and dependable alternative.

Access is one hurdle. Customers need compatible devices and eligible cards, banks must activate the service, and merchants need contactless terminals. The recent announcements do not mean that every bank customer can use the technology or that it is accepted at every POS location.

Reliability matters just as much. Customers want payments to go through without repeated attempts, while merchants need clear information about transaction charges and settlement. If a contactless payment fails at the checkout, people are likely to return to the transfer method they already know.

Security will also influence adoption. Tokenisation helps limit the exposure of original card details, but banks and payment providers still need safeguards against account compromise and clear ways for customers to report disputed transactions.

Nigeria already has an established electronic payments market. Interswitch and its partners are not introducing Nigerians to paying digitally; they are trying to add another option to the ways people already spend money. Whether phone-based contactless payments catch on will depend on how widely banks and merchants make them available, and whether customers find them convenient enough to use repeatedly.

Meiza Nigeria