Interswitch Africa Payment API
Interswitch Africa payment gateway REST API for merchants across Nigeria and West Africa to accept Verve, Mastercard, Visa, bank transfers (USSD), Quickteller, and mobile money payments with a network connecting 25+ African countries. Enables AI agents to manage payment transaction creation for Nigeria e-commerce automation, handle Verve local card processing for Nigeria-first payment automation, access bank transfer and USSD payment for feature phone payment automation, retrieve Quickteller payment service for Nigeria bill payment automation, manage mobile money payment for West Africa digital wallet automation, handle payment split and marketplace for Nigeria platform automation, access transaction reporting and reconciliation for Nigeria financial automation, retrieve fraud detection and risk management for Africa payment security automation, manage payment link and checkout for no-code Nigeria payment automation, and integrate Interswitch with Nigerian banks and enterprise business systems for end-to-end Nigeria payment automation.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
Nigeria/West Africa payments. PCI-DSS. API key/OAuth. NG. Payment data.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
A Nigerian or West African merchant wanting AI agents to automate Verve card, bank transfer, USSD, and mobile money payment acceptance through Interswitch's dominant Nigeria and West Africa payment infrastructure network.
Avoid When
NIGERIA CBN REGULATORY COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS: Nigeria payment processing is regulated by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); automated payment operations must comply with CBN regulations (transaction limits, KYC requirements); automated payment without CBN compliance creates regulatory violation. VERVE CARD ACCEPTANCE REQUIRES INTERSWITCH AGREEMENT: Verve (Nigeria's local card scheme) acceptance requires Interswitch agreement and acquiring relationship; automated Verve card acceptance assumes merchant agreement is in place; automated Verve processing without agreement creates network rejection. USSD PAYMENT FLOW REQUIRES CUSTOMER DEVICE INTERACTION: USSD payments require customer to dial USSD code on mobile phone; automated USSD checkout must provide USSD code to customer and poll for payment confirmation; automated USSD without customer interaction polling creates unconfirmed payment status.
Use Cases
- • Processing Nigeria Verve and bank transfer payments from local payment agents
- • Integrating USSD payments from feature phone commerce agents
- • Managing West Africa payment routing from multi-country Africa agents
- • Handling bill payment collection from Nigeria utility payment agents
Not For
- • East Africa-focused payments (use M-Pesa or Pesapal for East Africa)
- • Pan-Africa at scale (use Flutterwave for broader Africa coverage)
- • Global payment processing beyond Africa (use Stripe or Adyen for international)
Interface
Authentication
Interswitch uses API key and OAuth 2.0 for integrations. REST API with JSON. Lagos, Nigeria HQ. Founded 2002 by Mitchell Elegbe. Backed by Visa (20% stake, 2019), TA Associates, Helios Investment Partners ($1B valuation as of 2019). Products: Payment gateway, Verve card network, Quickteller, bank transfers, USSD, mobile money. SDKs: Java, PHP, .NET. PCI DSS. Serves merchants across 25+ African countries. Competes with Flutterwave and Paystack for Nigeria payments.
Pricing
Lagos NG. Visa-backed. Per-transaction fees in NGN. Monthly fee for some enterprise services.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ MERCHANT CODE AND PAYMENT METHOD COMBINATION: Interswitch payment requests require specific merchant code and payment method combination; automated payment routing must use correct merchant code for each payment method; automated wrong merchant code for payment method creates routing failure to incorrect payment network
- ⚠ USSD TRANSACTION REFERENCE POLLING: USSD payments require polling Interswitch status API after customer initiates USSD session; automated USSD payment must implement status polling with appropriate timeout; automated USSD without polling creates indeterminate payment status without confirmation
- ⚠ BANK TRANSFER VIRTUAL ACCOUNT ASSIGNMENT: Interswitch bank transfer creates virtual accounts for payment collection; automated bank transfer checkout must manage virtual account assignment and expiry; automated reuse of expired virtual account creates payment routing to invalid account
- ⚠ VERVE CARD 3DS AUTHENTICATION REQUIREMENT: Verve card transactions require 3DS authentication on Nigerian e-commerce; automated Verve checkout must implement 3DS redirect flow; automated card charge without 3DS creates declined transaction for Verve on e-commerce channels
- ⚠ SETTLEMENT SCHEDULE AND CURRENCY: Interswitch settles in NGN on Nigerian banking schedule (T+1 for most methods); automated reconciliation must account for CBN banking holidays; automated daily reconciliation without banking calendar awareness creates reconciliation mismatch on Nigerian public holidays
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.