Verve International, Africa’s 1st and largest domestic payments scheme has yet again announced a remarkable new milestone in its business, firmly consolidating its growing market share in Nigeria - in terms of card issuance and transactions. Verve now has over 50 million issued payment cards to date. This development comes barely a year after the scheme announced it had issued 35 million cards in Nigeria in March 2022, translating to 42% growth in issuance volumes YoY.
Verve has become the payment card of choice across various tiers of banking services and particularly within the burgeoning fintech space in Nigeria. It would be recalled that in October 2022, Verve and Opay announced a significant partnership in Nigeria, rolling out the OPay Verve Instant Debit Card, directly linked to OPay user wallets, thereby making it easy and convenient to make payments for goods and services, essentially empowering millions of Opay users to transact with Verve cards directly from their wallets.
Verve, as Africa’s premier and leading domestic payment cards scheme is focused on addressing peculiar market challenges in Africa by providing secure and cost-effective payment options for individuals and businesses to exchange value. Verve offers both virtual and physical cards that facilitate payment for an increasing number of international services in local currency, and has made significant progress in this regard, having achieved merchant acceptance with platforms such as Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, and Flywire, to mention a few. Verve also has a number of major partnerships in the works, underscoring its strong resolve to continue to drive such partnerships that provide users in Africa convenient opportunities to access global services in local denominations.
On the African front, Verve cardholders are provided with the benefit of using the Verve card in Nigeria and over 21 other African countries, underscoring the company's resolve to ensure the seamlessness of transactions across the continent, particularly for the critical mass of consumer demographics, whilst driving value and efficiency for African financial institutions. Particularly noteworthy, are rapidly expanding issuing and acceptance partnerships across East Africa, including major financial institutions such as the 2 largest financial institutions KCB Group and more recently Equity Bank.
On a global perspective, through strategic partnerships with Discover Financial Services, Verve cardholders are able to perform transactions and make payments while outside Africa, using their Verve Global Cards. The Verve Global Card from the Discover partnership is accepted in 185 countries that include the United States of America, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Verve has significantly expanded its footprints in the East African region, deepening its partnership with KCB Bank of Uganda in a move that will see the acceptance of the Verve Card on KCB Bank’s widespread and strategically distributed Point of Sale (POS) merchant network across the region, in addition to a more recent partnership with Equity Bank Group announced in June 2022, which saw Equity also become an acquirer for Verve cards, adding to its wide portfolio of cards accepted by all Point-of-Sale (POS) machine locations and ATMs countrywide.
Speaking on this latest business milestone, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Verve International, Vincent Ogbunude, stated that Verve continues to provide innovative ways to make transactions and payments more secure and convenient for our customers across Africa and beyond.
He said, "As the progressive shift towards cashless payments accelerates, and in view of the peculiarities of the markets in which we do business, it has become important that we continue to consolidate in delivering global-standard payment solutions tailored to economic and operational realities of the environment, whilst doubling-down on value-adding partnerships that ensure we scale our impact and turbo-charge financial inclusion on the African continent...”
"13 years ago, we defied daunting odds and set out to chart a course for a brave new world of payments in Africa. Today we are thoroughly delighted and proud to celebrate this phenomenal milestone of 50 million cards and counting, which effectively positions Verve as the leading payment cards scheme in Africa’s most significant consumer market."
Verve International, a subsidiary of the Interswitch Group, Africa’s leading integrated digital payments and commerce enabler is the first EMV-certified pan-African domestic payment card scheme (a subsidiary of the Interswitch Group), issuing cards and payment solutions to individuals, issuers, and organizations; and remains committed to pushing the bounds in terms of customer experience and payment possibilities.
Cardholders have come to regard Verve as a safe, convenient and reliable payment solution for everything payment. Verve cards can be used across a wide range of payment channels like Point of Sale (POS) terminals, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Agency banking channels, Web/e-commerce, and Mobile Apps.