🇳🇬 English, 31 October 2026, contactless payments
Verve Plans Phone Tap-to-Pay and AI Agent Payments
Verve aims to reduce payment friction with new technologies.
The plans build on a push Verve began last year, which included contactless payments and tokenisation, replacing card details with a one-time code. Verve now has 130 million cards, up from 100 million last year. Tap-to-pay on phones would let customers pay with a device they already carry, without a physical card.
Agentic payments go further: an AI assistant, acting on a customer’s instructions, would find and complete a purchase without the customer handling each step. This technology is being adopted by global card networks, with Visa and Mastercard announcing programmes in 2025 to let AI agents make payments for cardholders.
The volumes involved are large, with the NIBSS Instant Payment system processing about 11.2 billion transactions worth ₦1.07 quadrillion in 2024.