Your Android phone can now work as your wallet in Nigeria. Google announced on Wednesday, 28 October, that Google Wallet, which includes Google Pay, is live in the country.
You download the Google Wallet app from the Play Store, add a supported card, and tap your phone to pay in stores, in apps and online. The app also holds loyalty cards, event tickets and boarding passes. It works on Android phones and Wear OS watches.
Four banks are supported at launch, and only some of their cards:
- FirstBank: Mastercard debit
- GTBank: Mastercard debit and prepaid
- Zenith Bank: Mastercard credit, debit and prepaid
- UBA: Mastercard credit, debit and prepaid, plus a Visa prepaid card
Visa said its cardholders in Nigeria can use Google Pay, but the list Google published is narrower than that. Verve and AfriGO cards are not on it, and neither are cards from OPay, Moniepoint, Kuda or PalmPay.
The bigger problem is the point of sale. To tap your phone, you need an NFC-enabled Android phone and a shop with a contactless terminal. Many PoS machines in Nigeria don’t have that hardware. CashAfrica CEO Malik Asamu told Techpoint that contactless is about 0.1% of payments in Nigeria, and that about half of Android phones in the country have NFC. None of the launch announcements names a PoS provider whose terminals take phone taps.
Online is easier. Paystack turned on Google Pay for Nigerian businesses in September, and Interswitch added it to its payment gateway in 2023, though each merchant still has to switch it on.
Nigeria joins South Africa, which got Google Wallet about four years ago.
