Wema Bank in Nigeria enables Google Pay for Mastercard customers — The Rio Times

Nigerian Wema Bank has enabled the Google Pay service for customers with compatible Wema Mastercard cards. Holders of such cards can pay for purchases on websites, in apps and contactlessly in stores using Android smartphones, The Rio Times reports.

How the service will work

To use Google Pay, a customer needs to install the Google Wallet app from Google Play, add a card to it and complete verification. For contactless payments at retail outlets, the smartphone must support NFC and the merchant's terminal must accept contactless payments.

The service can also be used to pay for digital subscriptions, book trips and conduct international transactions if supported by the particular merchant. Wema Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Moruf Oseni said that the bank aims to expand payment options for customers amid the growth of digital commerce.

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Card data protection

According to the bank, Google Pay uses tokenization: during a payment, the actual card number is replaced with a unique digital token. Thus, the merchant does not receive the customer's card number. Screen locks and authentication on compatible devices provide additional protection.

The launch took place after Google Pay became available in Nigeria in late October through Mastercard and Nigerian payment company Interswitch. Wema Bank had previously introduced tokenization for Verve cards on its ALAT digital banking platform.