At a fintech conference in Lagos last Thursday, Tomi Ogunlesi of Interswitch made a candid admission: the banks are ready for tap-to-pay, but everyday Nigerians still need convincing. Speaking at Moonshot 2026, Ogunlesi, who serves as divisional head of brands, communication, content and CSR at the Nigerian payments company, said the heaviest lifting now falls on the consumer education side of the equation.
The timing of his remarks is no coincidence. Interswitch recently joined Mastercard to launch Google Pay in Nigeria, letting eligible Mastercard holders link their cards to Google Wallet and pay with compatible Android phones at contactless terminals. To make this work at scale, Interswitch says it is partnering with five banks including GTBank, Wema Bank, Zenith Bank, FirstBank, and Providus Unity Bank to grow tokenised tap-to-pay transactions. Supermarket chain Spar has also shown interest in joining the merchant network.
Contactless payments in Nigeria actually go back further than many people remember. In 2015, Unified Payments launched PayAttitude, an NFC-based service that used a chip-enabled tag to make payments at compatible terminals. More recently, Access Bank partnered with Visa in March 2025 to launch Tap to Phone, turning NFC-enabled Android smartphones into merchant payment terminals. Then in October, CashAfrica teamed up with Chicken Republic to bring mobile tap-to-pay to over 350 outlets.
The technology keeps arriving, yet mainstream adoption keeps stalling. Ogunlesi acknowledged that the very simplicity of tapping to pay can make some Nigerians suspicious, which is why Interswitch has leaned into explaining tokenisation. "The token that is replacing your card number in a tap-to-pay transaction is not your card number," he said. "It's more like a one-time token that is being used to mask your card number." Interswitch says it has quietly prepared for this moment by issuing tokenisation-compatible cards for the past two to three years.
Infrastructure gaps and limited awareness have tripped up contactless payments in Nigeria before. The question now is whether this round of industry coordination, backed by a clearer consumer message, finally tips the balance.
Originally published by TechCabal.