Verve adoption grows as fintechs embrace local payment cards

Verve cards have gained prominence over Mastercard and Visa cards as Nigerian fintechs are tilting towards the locally and readily available option.

According to research by Statista, Verve controls 54 percent of the Nigerian card market. Thirty percent of cardholders in Nigeria have a Mastercard, and some 18 percent own a Visa card. This was attributed to the population’s low card uptake.

In recent years, factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and bank cash shortages have largely caused fintech customers to shift towards bank transfers on mobile platforms rather than cards.

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To this end, fintechs are looking inward to rethink their card operations, which has led to a large reliance on Verve cards owned by Interswitch, a Nigerian digital payment provider.

Moving from international card schemes has become imminent owing to the naira’s devaluation, which has made FX-denominated bills more expensive. However, data on credit card penetration in Nigeria show that the share of people owning a credit card is quite low in the country.

The advent of fintechs has also sped up the uptake of Verve cards, as OPay has issued 13 million Verve cards, while Moniepoint has issued about 4 million. More importantly, customers’ use of cards has also impacted their decision to switch to locally sourced cards. With people unable to spend as much because of inflationary pressures, the need for global payments has also reduced.