When Nomba launched its API business, the ambition was straightforward: build a payments infrastructure that could scale without becoming a bottleneck. That ambition was tested quickly. In 2025, daily transaction volume grew from ₦37 million in January to ₦1.7 billion by December, representing 46× growth. Quarterly figures show an even sharper acceleration, with Q4 alone processing ₦105 billion, more than the rest of the year combined. Rather than being driven by short-lived spikes, the growth reflected deeper usage by businesses that had already integrated Nomba’s API. “From the beginning, our view was that payments infrastructure isn’t something you optimize for marketing numbers,” said Yinka Adewale, CEO of Nomba. “It’s something you optimize for trust. If businesses are going to build on you, the system has to work quietly and consistently, even as usage grows faster than expected.” Performance data from the year shows a 99.78% transaction success rate, with just 4,076 refunds out of 1.85 million transactions — roughly one refund for every 450 successful payments. December proved to be the clearest stress test for the platform. The month accounted for all of the year’s highest transaction days, including year-end activity on December 31, as businesses closed their books and transaction volumes peaked. Despite the sustained load, system performance remained stable throughout the period, with no reported degradation. Transaction activity consistently peaked around 7pm, a period when many Nigerian businesses have closed operations for the day. Rather than being a predictable spike, the timing underscores how critical payment reliability is — transactions continue to move even when teams are offline. For many businesses, the confidence that payments would process seamlessly overnight, without manual intervention, became a key reason for deeper trust in the platform. Beyond growth, Nomba’s data also reveals how payment behaviour is evolving across different business segments. Retail transactions under ₦10,000 accounted for 63% of total transaction count, reflecting the frequency-driven nature of everyday commerce. In contrast, enterprise transactions above ₦1 million contributed 48% of total transaction value, underscoring how larger businesses move fewer but significantly higher-value payments. What makes the pattern notable is not the split itself, but the infrastructure underneath it. Both use cases — high-frequency, low-value retail payments and low-frequency, high-value enterprise transfers — were served through the same API infrastructure, without separate systems or routing logic. In practical terms, this means the platform was handling two very different operational realities simultaneously: the speed and consistency required by retail businesses, and the reliability and accuracy demanded by enterprises. According to the company, the ability to support both without trade-offs became a key factor in why businesses expanded usage over time. Virtual accounts emerged as the dominant payment rail, accounting for 75% of all transactions, far surpassing cards. “What we’re seeing is a shift driven by end customers,” said Yinka Adewale, CEO of Nomba. “Customers increasingly expect payments to be instant, reliable, and not dependent on whether a card works or a channel is available. Merchants are responding by standardising on payment rails that reduce failure, simplify reconciliation, and work consistently at scale. Virtual accounts have become that foundation.” The data follows Nomba’s Apple Pay integration announcement late last year, which signalled the company’s push toward global-standard payments infrastructure. Together, the milestones point to a longer-term strategy: building systems that allow fast-growing businesses to operate confidently at home while being structurally ready to receive payments from anywhere, without having to rethink their infrastructure as they expand. For questions or additional information, contact abidemi@nomba.com. This article is credited to Abidemi Adesokan, Head,Growth and Marketing at Nomba
