How Nomba Quietly Became One of Nigeria’s Most Trusted Payment Rails

At the start of 2025, Nomba was processing about ₦37 million in transactions. By the end of the year, that number had exploded into billions without flashy hype, viral gimmicks, or aggressive marketing.

Instead, something more interesting happened.

Nomba built infrastructure that worked. And Nigerian businesses noticed.

From Millions to Billions — In One Year

When Nomba rolled out its API for online businesses, the goal wasn’t noise. It was scale.

By the end of 2025, the Lagos-based fintech had processed ₦122 billion across 1.85 million transactions, serving over 800 active API merchants. Transaction volumes didn’t just grow, they multiplied, jumping 46× between January and December.

Even more striking?
The last quarter alone accounted for ₦105 billion, a massive leap compared to the first three months of the year.

This wasn’t a seasonal spike. It was sustained usage.

The Quiet Takeover of Virtual Accounts

One clear trend stood out in Nomba’s data: virtual accounts are winning.

In 2025, 75% of all transactions on Nomba’s API ran through virtual accounts, leaving card payments far behind. For businesses, the reasons are simple:

• Instant settlement
• Fewer failed transactions
• Easier reconciliation
• No dependency on whether a card network is “up”

As digital commerce expands across Nigeria, merchants are choosing payment rails that don’t break under pressure.

And customers are voting with their behaviour.

What This Signals for Nigerian Businesses

Nomba’s rise points to a broader shift happening quietly across Nigeria’s fintech space:

• Businesses want invisible infrastructure that just works.
• Virtual accounts are replacing cards as the backbone of digital payments.
• Reliability is becoming more valuable than flashy features.

With recent moves like Apple Pay integration and continued investment in API-first payments, Nomba appears to be positioning itself not just for local scale but for Nigerian businesses that want to sell to the world without rebuilding their systems from scratch.

Sometimes, the biggest fintech stories aren’t the loudest ones.

They’re the platforms processing billions… quietly.