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Visa Launches Report on Digital Payment Landscape in Nigeria, Shows Positive Outlook
Visa, a global leader in payments, today announced the launch of a new report, ‘Value of Acceptance: Understanding the Digital Payment Landscape in Nigeria,’ which highlights substantial growth potential for digital payments, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In Nigeria, digital payments are proving beneficial for surveyed SMEs, with nearly 90% believing that it boosts revenue and customer footfall. This growing confidence in digital transactions, especially cards, is coupled with a desire for further digitization, with 76% of cash-only SMEs planning to invest in new payment technologies.
The study also reveals that more than half of merchants already prefer digital payments, with 44% reporting lost sales due to customers’ lack of cash and 62% expressing concerns over fraud risk associated with cash.
Nigeria’s Digital Payments Momentum
An overwhelmingly positive outlook on digital payment investment emerged in the report, with 83% of merchants surveyed seeing this as a crucial component for growth, boosting sales, reducing fraud, and enhancing convenience among customers,
“Nigeria’s digital payments landscape is rapidly evolving, with a growing inclination towards digital transactions,” stated Andrew Uaboi, Vice President & Head, Visa West Africa.
“This transformation not only holds the promise of bolstering SMEs prosperity but can also help the economy to thrive.
“At Visa, we look forward to working together with our partners to further drive this transformation, enabling individuals, merchants, and businesses to grow and participate in the digital economy.”
Addressing Challenges to Unlock Full Potential
Unlocking digital payments’ full potential in Nigeria will require confronting key challenges. There is an overarching need to enhance financial literacy and raise awareness about the benefits of digital payments while also incentivizing their usage among customers.
With 76% of cash-only SMEs surveyed intending to get a point-of-sale (POS) device in the near future, an opportunity emerges to accelerate adoption through simplifying onboarding.
In addition, improving infrastructure to counteract concerns around payments failures (42%) can enhance confidence in digitization. To address fraud concerns, educational campaigns are vital to highlighting the robust security features of digital payments, especially the lower fraud risk associated with card payments.
Visa’s established cybersecurity capabilities can be instrumental to building trust across the digital payments landscape in Nigeria by helping to harness confidence across both the SME and consumer segments.
The Broader Value of Digital Payment Acceptance
Digital payments are crucial for Nigerian SMEs for a number of reasons including – boosting revenue through an increasingly cashless customer base, improving customer satisfaction with faster payments, and reducing operational risks by minimizing cash handling. Digital transaction records also provide valuable data that facilitate access to financing and stimulate growth.
While cash is still seen as quick and convenient, cards offer an advantage across expense tracking, spending encouragement, and enhanced security. Meanwhile, mobile and digital wallets offer an innovative and competitive edge. Promoting the adoption of preferred methods, particularly card payments, is crucial for driving growth.
Beyond direct benefits, digital payment adoption drives economic growth and financial inclusion, by connecting the unbanked to the formal financial system and enabling access to savings, credit, and insurance.
Research shows that the transition to the digital economy can generate 1-2% annual GDP growth; a mere 1% increase in card usage generates an average $67 billion annual increase in goods and services consumption across 70 countries and territories.
Visa: A Partner in Driving Digital Payment Adoption
Visa is uniquely positioned to support Nigeria’s transition to a more digital economy. As a trusted advisor and partner, Visa offers a range of capabilities to help governments, financial institutions, businesses, and technology providers enhance their digital payment acceptance maturity.
Visa’s suite of solutions includes programs for specific merchant segments, innovations like Tap to Phone, Contactless Payments and Click to Pay, and resources educating businesses about the benefits of digital payments.
About the Visa Value of Acceptance report
Visa’s ‘Value of Acceptance: Understanding the Digital Payment Landscape in Nigeria’ report, conducted by 4Sight Research & Analytics, examines the current state of digital payment acceptance, exploring both opportunities and challenges. The findings are based on face-to-face interviews with 250 SME owners/managers who are key decision-makers with respect to day-to-day business decisions.
In the wake of increasing geopolitical tension, Cassava Technologies has unveiled its National Sovereign Cloud offering for African governments.
The solution, the company claims, will help the continent’s governments ensure data is kept on infrastructure that remains under local legal and operational jurisdiction.
According to the official announcement, made yesterday, the solution provides “secure, locally-governed digital infrastructure that enables the deployment of AI-enabled public services”.
The overarching solution encompasses cloud, cyber security, AI computing infrastructure, as well as local language AI models and skills support for governments.
The announcement comes amid increasing uncertainty over the hosting of sensitive national data on cloud services operated by foreign hyperscalers, which are subject to legal frameworks, such as the U.S. CLOUD Act. The CLOUD Act opens the door to allow American authorities to access data stored on the servers of US hyperscalers, wherever those servers are physically located.
Cassava has claimed separately that currently, “approximately 33% to 45% of the world’s data is hosted in the USA”.
The company added: “A sovereign cloud reduces exposure to extraterritorial laws, improves cyber resilience, and ensures that model weights and training data for public AI remain under national custody.”
The Africa Data Centres Association’s 2026 Economic Report states that “data sovereignty has evolved from a legal aspiration into a strategic policy lever”.
Ahmed El Beheiry, Group COO and Group Chief Technology and AI Officer, Cassava Technologies said: “Across Africa, governments are accelerating their digital transformation agendas and are increasingly focused on ensuring that data and digital infrastructure remain secure and sovereign.”
Announced at the Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona, this week, the Sovereign Cloud offering launch accompanied the launch of Cassava’s Cloud Partner programme.
The partner programme targets mobile network operators and system integrators across Africa to resell and distribute AI, cloud, and other digital services using Cassava’s infrastructure and technology platforms.
El Beheiry added: “We are expanding Africa’s sovereign AI ecosystem to build solutions that address the continent’s unique challenges while creating new opportunities for growth and digital inclusion.”
The programme offers partners access to NVIDIA Cloud Partner solutions, Cassava’s AI Factory, its own native AI solutions and its AI Multi-Model Exchange, which supports both Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini models.
Mazen Mroue, a non-executive director at MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, has resigned effective February 27, 2026, to prioritise other responsibilities within the MTN Group, the company announced in a Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) filing.
MTN Nigeria
The notice, signed by company secretary Uto Ukpanah, stated: “This is to enable Mr. Mroue to focus on other priorities within MTN Group Limited. The Board wishes to express its appreciation to Mr. Mroue for his immense service to MTN Nigeria and wishes him success in his future endeavours.”
Mroue joined MTN Nigeria’s board on June 1, 2022, bringing over 28 years of telecom experience. A veteran MTN executive, he previously served as CEO of MTN Uganda and MTN Liberia, non-executive director at MTN Cyprus, and held leadership roles at MTN Ghana.
Since February 2022, he has been MTN Group’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, overseeing technology strategy and governance. Earlier, as MTN Nigeria’s COO from August 2018 to January 2022, he also sat on the MTN Nigeria Foundation board.
The exit follows MTN Nigeria’s stellar 2025 results, posting a ₦1.70 trillion profit before tax—reversing a ₦550.3 billion loss in 2024 driven by forex woes—marking one of the telco’s strongest rebounds.
Google has rolled out support for Yorùbá and Hausa languages in its AI-powered Search features—AI Overviews and AI Mode—enabling millions of Nigerians to get quick answers, summaries, and conversational web exploration in their mother tongues.
The update forms part of Google’s push to cover 13 African languages, including Afrikaans, Akan, Amharic, Kinyarwanda, Afaan Oromoo, Somali, Sesotho, Kiswahili, Setswana, Wolof, and isiZulu, selected based on high search activity across the continent.
Now, a Kano student can ask complex questions in Hausa, while an Ibadan trader seeks business tips in Yorùbá—both receiving culturally nuanced AI responses via text or voice on Android, iOS, or web.
Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s West Africa Communications Manager, said: “Building truly global Search requires nuanced local understanding. With Gemini-powered AI, we’ve made advanced capabilities relevant in Yorùbá and Hausa, so Nigerians converse naturally with Search in their mother tongues.”
To use: Open the Google app, tap AI Mode, and query in Hausa or Yorùbá for personalised guidance—breaking language barriers and making technology reflect Nigeria’s diverse identity.
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