Verve, Africa’s leading domestic payment card scheme, has now reached a defining milestone with the issuance of 100 million Verve payment cards issued across Africa, reaffirming its growing influence and strengthening its leadership across the continent’s evolving payments ecosystem.
Over the years, Verve has established itself as the go-to card scheme across Nigeria and beyond. The card has become deeply embedded in everyday transactions, from ATM withdrawals and POS payments to online purchases and mobile payments. Verve’s growth has accelerated through strategic collaborations with FinTechs and banks, making cards accessible to a wide spectrum of users including individuals, SMEs, students, and corporate customers.
Celebrating the historic moment in Verve’s journey and reflecting on what the milestone represents for Africa’s financial ecosystem, Vincent Ogbunude, Managing Director, Verve International, noted:
“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. 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. 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.”
In recent years, Verve has continuously innovated to meet modern payment needs introducing contactless payment capabilities, expanding global e-commerce acceptance through strategic partnerships, and offering both physical and virtual cards, features that reflect a deep understanding of the financial and digital realities of African consumers.
With this achievement, Verve is not just growing in numbers, it is expanding the boundaries of financial inclusion, enabling access to formal banking and payment services for communities that were previously under-served or unbanked. Verve’s card issuance milestone signals a firm step toward bridging payment gaps, promoting entrepreneurship, and creating new economic opportunities across Nigeria and Africa.
Beyond the physical card, Verve has evolved into a robust, technology-driven payment ecosystem built on security, convenience, and innovation. From its secure chip-and-PIN architecture to advanced fraud-prevention protocols, the Verve card continues to offer users a safer and more reliable way to transact across channels.
As Africa’s premier and leading domestic payment cards scheme, Verve remains focused on addressing peculiar market challenges in Africa by providing secure and cost-effective payment options for individuals and businesses to exchange value, offering both virtual and physical cards that facilitate payment for an increasing number of international services in local currency. In the last 4 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 , to mention a few, underscoring a strong resolve to continue to drive relevant partnerships that provide its users in Africa convenient opportunities to access global services in local denominations.
Looking ahead, Verve is deepening its commitment to innovation with the rollout of enhanced features, including contactless payments for faster, tap-and-go transactions and tokenization to provide an added layer of protection for digital and online payments, while strengthening its partnerships with fintech platforms, financial institutions, and merchants to drive wider acceptance both online and offline.