Interswitch Says Tap to Pay is Ready, but Users Need Trust

In Short

Interswitch says tap-to-pay adoption in Nigeria is now less about bank readiness and more about consumer trust.

What Happened: Why Interswitch Thinks Tap To Pay Needs Consumer Education

Interswitch, a Nigerian payments technology company, says consumer education is the biggest hurdle to making tap-to-pay a mainstream payment method in Nigeria, even as banks and merchants prepare to support it.

Speaking at Moonshot 2026 in Lagos, Tomi Ogunlesi, divisional head of brands, communication, content and CSR at Interswitch, said the industry needs to convince consumers that tapping their cards or phones to pay is secure and convenient.

“The banks are ready,” Ogunlesi said. “Where more of the work needs to be done now, from our perspective as an industry, is on the merchant side and on the consumer side, but most on the consumer side.”

His comments followed an announcement by Mastercard and Interswitch about the launch of Google Pay in Nigeria. The launch allows eligible Mastercard holders to add their cards to Google Wallet and pay with compatible Android phones at contactless-enabled terminals.

Interswitch said it is working with five Nigerian banks, including GTBank, Wema Bank, ProvidusUnity Bank, Zenith Bank, and FirstBank, to expand tokenised tap-to-pay transactions. Tokenised transactions replace card details with a token (a substitute code) during payment.

The company also said it is working to bring more merchants into the network. It added that supermarket chain Spar had shown interest.

Why It Matters

Tap-to-pay is not new in Nigeria. The source notes that in 2015, Unified Payments launched PayAttitude, an NFC-based payment service, with several Nigerian banks.

Interswitch’s framing suggests the next phase is less about launching products and more about getting everyday users comfortable with contactless payments. That shifts attention to consumer education and merchant acceptance as key adoption bottlenecks.