Verve Surpasses 50m Payment Cards, Consolidates Market Leadership

Verve International 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 per cent growth in issuance volumes YoY. 

Verve has become the payment card of choice across various tiers of banking service 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 said it 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.

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 payment 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.”