Verve, Africa’s leading domestic payment card scheme, has crossed a major milestone, issuing 100 million payment cards across the continent and reinforcing its growing influence in Africa’s rapidly evolving digital payments ecosystem.
The home-grown card scheme, which remains one of the most widely used in Nigeria, has expanded steadily through strategic partnerships with banks and fintech companies, the company says in a statement. These collaborations have broadened access to Verve cards for individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, students, and corporate users, supporting everyday transactions such as ATM withdrawals, point-of-sale payments, online shopping, and mobile-based payments.
Verve says the milestone reflects its continued push to connect African users to global digital services while enabling transactions in local currencies. Over the past four years, the company notes that it has significantly expanded its international merchant acceptance.
“In the last four years, Verve has made significant progress in this regard, having achieved merchant acceptance with platforms such as Google, Spotify, Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, AliExpress, Temu and Flywire,” the company says.
Commenting on the achievement, Vincent Ogbunude, Managing Director of Verve International, says the 100 million mark goes beyond headline figures and speaks to financial inclusion and digital empowerment across the continent.
“In the last four years, Verve has made significant progress in this regard, having achieved merchant acceptance with platforms such as Google, Spotify, Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, AliExpress, Temu and Flywire,” the company says.
“This 100 million milestone is more than a number; it represents millions of people across the African continent who have become empowered to participate in the digital economy,” Ogbunude says. “It belongs to every customer who believed in an African home-grown card scheme and every institution that partnered with us to make it scalable.”
He adds that the milestone reinforces Verve’s core purpose of driving deeper impact within Africa’s digital and financial ecosystem.
“Verve was built to reflect Africa’s reality and ambition, and as we move forward, our focus remains on deeper impact, wider inclusion, and taking African innovations even further across the continent and beyond,” Ogbunude says.
Alongside its expansion, Verve is also strengthening its technology-led payment ecosystem with enhanced security and innovation. The company is rolling out advanced features including secure chip-and-PIN architecture, upgraded fraud-prevention systems, contactless “tap-and-go” payments, and tokenisation to add extra layers of protection for online and digital transactions.
These developments, Verve says, are being complemented by deeper partnerships with fintech platforms, financial institutions, and merchants to drive wider acceptance of its cards across both online and offline channels, as it positions itself for the next phase of growth in Africa’s digital payments market.
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