2026 List of Card & Payment Schemes Licensed to Operate in Nigeria

Every time a Nigerian taps a card at a POS terminal, scans to pay at a checkout, or buys something online, an invisible network springs into action behind the scenes — authorising the transaction, routing it between banks, and settling the money. That network is a card or payment scheme, and in Nigeria, only a select group of them are licensed to operate.

These schemes sit at the heart of the country's fast-digitising payments economy, an economy that has moved decisively away from cash. By mid-2024, electronic channels dominated retail payments, with NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) transactions alone reaching hundreds of trillions of naira in value in a single half-year. Behind much of that activity are the card and payment schemes regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This guide explains what these schemes are, how they are regulated, and profiles each of the licensees operating in Nigeria's card and payment scheme category.

What Is a Card / Payment Scheme?

A card or payment scheme is the organisation that owns and operates the "rails" on which card and similar payments run. It sets the rules, standards, and technical infrastructure that allow a cardholder's bank (the issuer), the merchant's bank (the acquirer), and the merchant itself to communicate and move money.

In plain terms: the scheme is the referee and the road network combined. It does not usually issue cards directly to consumers — banks and other financial institutions do that — but it provides the branded system (Visa, Mastercard, Verve, AfriGo, and so on) that makes those cards work, both at home and, in many cases, across borders.

How Payment Schemes Are Regulated in Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria is the apex regulator of the country's payment system. It licenses participants, sets minimum capital and governance requirements, and issues the guidelines that govern how electronic payments operate.

In December 2020, the CBN streamlined its payment-system licensing into clearer categories, with the main operational licences covering Switching and Processing, Mobile Money Operations, Payment Solution Service Providers (PSSP), and Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSP). Card and payment schemes form their own distinct grouping within the broader Payment Service Provider landscape, reflecting their specialised role in owning and running card networks rather than simply processing or aggregating payments.

Licensees must meet "fit and proper" standards for their directors and management, comply with security frameworks such as PCI-DSS, interface with national infrastructure like the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), and adhere to anti-money-laundering and consumer-protection rules. Crucially, collaborations between payment players require CBN approval, and licensees must restrict their activities to what their specific licence permits.

According to the CBN's own listing, the card schemes operating in Nigeria include Verve, AfriGo, Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay, PayAttitude, Amex, and others — the same set captured in the official licensee list below.

The Licensed Card & Payment Schemes in Nigeria

Here are the eight licensees in the card/payment scheme category, with a profile of each.

1. 3Line Card Management Limited

3Line is a homegrown Nigerian payments technology company that has built infrastructure spanning card management, agency banking, and payment processing. As a card management operation, it provides the systems that allow financial institutions to issue and manage cards, positioning itself among the local players supporting Nigeria's domestic payments ecosystem rather than relying solely on global networks.

2. AfriGo (Afrigo Financial Services Limited)

AfriGo is Nigeria's national domestic card scheme, launched by the Central Bank of Nigeria in partnership with NIBSS in January 2023. It was created to reduce the country's dependence on foreign card networks, cut the foreign-exchange costs associated with international schemes, strengthen data sovereignty by keeping transaction data in-country, and deepen financial inclusion. As a sovereign scheme, AfriGo represents one of the most strategically significant entries on this list — a deliberate move to give Nigeria its own card rails, comparable to India's RuPay or Turkey's Troy.

3. American Express (American Express International)

American Express is one of the world's best-known global payment and card brands, recognised for its charge and credit cards and its premium positioning. Its licensed presence allows Amex cards to function within the Nigerian payments environment, extending acceptance to a network of merchants and serving both international visitors and local premium cardholders.

4. Mastercard International

Mastercard is one of the two dominant global card networks operating in Nigeria. Its rails support credit, debit, and prepaid cards issued by Nigerian banks, enabling both domestic transactions and global acceptance across millions of merchants worldwide. Mastercard has also been an active investor and partner in African fintech, reinforcing its deep footprint in the region's digital-payments growth.

5. PayAttitude

PayAttitude is a Nigerian payment scheme known for enabling transactions without a physical card — using a phone number or token as the payment credential. By allowing customers to pay across channels through their mobile identity, it caters to a market where mobile penetration is high and offers an alternative model to traditional plastic-card payments, supporting the broader financial-inclusion agenda.

6. UnionPay International

UnionPay is the major Chinese-origin global card scheme and one of the largest card networks in the world by cards issued. Its licensed operation in Nigeria reflects growing economic and trade ties between Nigeria and China, providing acceptance for UnionPay cardholders — including the many Chinese businesses and travellers active in the Nigerian market — and giving local issuers another global network to partner with.

7. Verve (Verve International)

Verve is Nigeria's pioneering and most widely used indigenous card scheme, originally developed by Interswitch. For years before AfriGo's arrival, Verve was the leading domestic alternative to Visa and Mastercard, with tens of millions of cards in circulation. It supports debit, prepaid, and other card types across ATMs, POS terminals, web, and mobile, and has expanded beyond Nigeria into other African markets, making it a flagship African payments success story.

8. Visa (Visa International Service Association)

Visa is the other dominant global card network in Nigeria, alongside Mastercard. Its infrastructure underpins a vast share of internationally enabled cards issued by Nigerian banks, supporting everyday domestic spending as well as cross-border e-commerce and travel. Like Mastercard, Visa has been heavily involved in backing African fintech innovation and expanding digital acceptance across the continent.

The Bigger Picture: Why This List Matters

The eight licensees reveal a telling balance in Nigeria's payments strategy. On one side sit the global giants — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and UnionPay — that connect Nigerian consumers and merchants to worldwide commerce. On the other sit the homegrown champions — Verve, AfriGo, PayAttitude, and 3Line — that reduce dependence on foreign infrastructure, retain value and data within Nigeria, and tailor solutions to local realities.

This mix is not accidental. The launch of AfriGo in particular signals a clear national ambition: to build sovereign payment capacity while remaining connected to the global financial system. For a country processing hundreds of trillions of naira through electronic channels, control over the underlying rails is both an economic and a strategic priority.

Final Thoughts

Card and payment schemes are the quiet machinery of modern commerce — rarely noticed when they work, indispensable all the same. Nigeria's licensed roster reflects a payments market that is simultaneously globally integrated and increasingly self-reliant, anchored by world-class international networks while nurturing domestic alternatives built for the Nigerian context.

As digital payments continue to expand and the cashless economy deepens, these schemes will remain central to how money moves across the country — and the balance between global reach and local sovereignty will shape the next chapter of Nigeria's financial story.