Eligible UBA, FirstBank and GTBank customers can now add cards to Google Wallet as Google Pay launches in Nigeria, with Visa supporting the launch; in-store tap payments depend on NFC-capable terminals.
Eligible customers of UBA, FirstBank and GTBank can add their cards to Google Wallet and pay with Google Pay, which launched in Nigeria on Tuesday, the banks said, and Visa said it is supporting the launch through its partnership with Google. “We are delighted to bring Google Wallet to Nigeria,” Olumide Balogun, Google’s country director for West Africa, said in Visa’s statement. GTCO said GTBank debit cards can be used with Google Pay for online payments, and that it has switched Google Pay on by default for all merchants on Squad, its payment gateway, who can turn it off. Paystack already supports Google Pay for Nigerian businesses at online checkouts; what is new is banks adding their own cards to the wallet. Paying by tap in shops needs point-of-sale terminals with working NFC readers and updated software, and thousands of Nigerian terminals still run older chip-and-PIN software, TheWill reported.
Sources: UBA release (Techpoint BrandPress) · FirstBank release (Premium Times, promoted) · GTCO release (APO Group) · Visa statement (Premium Times, promoted) · Paystack docs · Paystack support · TheWill