Tap, pay, go: Mastercard and Interswitch bring Google Pay to Nigeria

Mastercard, the global payments giant, and Interswitch, a Nigerian payments infrastructure provider, have partnered to bring Google Pay to eligible Mastercard cardholders in Nigeria, allowing customers to make contactless payments using Android smartphones.

The product will allow users to add supported bank cards to Google Wallet, Google’s digital wallet application, and pay at compatible terminals without presenting physical cards.

The integration uses Mastercard’s tokenisation technology, which replaces sensitive card information with unique digital credentials to protect customer details during transactions. Interswitch provides the infrastructure connecting participating banks to the tokenisation and payment processing systems.

The launch comes as Nigeria’s digital payments market continues to expand.

According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the country’s payments switch, instant payment transactions grew to ₦284.9 trillion ($212 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, up 21.5% from ₦234.5 trillion ($174.5 billion) in the previous year.

The growth reflects Nigeria’s increasing reliance on real-time bank transfers, which have become a dominant part of the country’s digital payments ecosystem.

Point-of-sale (PoS) infrastructure has expanded alongside digital transactions. By March 2025, Nigeria had 5.9 million deployed PoS terminals, more than double the number recorded the previous year.

PoS transaction values reached ₦10.51 trillion ($7.8 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, about four times the value recorded in the previous year.

Google Pay’s entry introduces a different payment experience, enabling customers to complete supported purchases by tapping their phones rather than transferring money or using physical cards.

“Our work has helped establish the issuer connectivity, tokenization and payment processing capabilities required to bring ‘tap-to-pay’ and wallet-based payments to Nigerian consumers,” said Akeem Lawal, managing director of payment, switching and processing at Interswitch.

Kari Tukur, Mastercard’s country manager for West Africa, said the collaboration would give eligible customers another way to pay while protecting their card details.

Unlike bank transfers, which require customers to enter account details or initiate payments through banking apps, Google Pay allows users to pay by holding their Android smartphones near compatible point-of-sale (PoS) terminals.

The service uses near-field communication (NFC), a wireless technology that enables devices to exchange payment information over short distances.

Google Pay is not new to Nigeria’s payments ecosystem. Interswitch previously integrated the service into its online payment gateway, enablingbusinesses to accept Google Pay payments.

The latest rollout extends access to locally issued cards, with Google’s list of supported Nigerian payment methods now including eligible Mastercard cards issued by tier-1 banks such as FirstBank, Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and Zenith Bank.

Customers need compatible Android devices with NFC technology to make contactless payments.

The launch also comes as Interswitch expands its tokenised payment infrastructure. On October 26, the company announced collaborations with five Nigerian banks—GTBank, Wema Bank, ProvidusUnity Bank, Zenith Bank, and FirstBank—to support tap-to-pay transactions across digital wallets and banking applications.

Moniepoint, the Nigerian financial services company, is restructuring its engineering and product teams, with some roles set to become redundant. The company is offering affected employees a voluntary exit package and plans to complete the process by the end of December, according to two employees with direct knowledge of the matter.

The restructuring, announced internally to staff on Monday, October 19, introduces smaller teams responsible for building and operating products from end to end, alongside new platform architect roles to oversee shared technology systems.

Moniepoint has grown from a single product into a financial services group spanning payments, banking, credit and business management. It now wants smaller teams with clearer responsibility for delivery and operations, rather than relying on multiple layers of coordination and sign-off.

A Moniepoint spokesperson said the restructuring should not be regarded as a layoff. The company did not disclose how many employees would be affected.

Staff were offered five months’ salary to resign voluntarily. However, Moniepoint can reject applications from employees whose skills it still needs, according to two employees who asked not to be named to speak freely. The voluntary exit window closed on Friday, October 23, and staff will be told whether their roles are affected between November 2 and November 11.

“As part of Moniepoint’s regular strategic review of operations, the management is restructuring the engineering and product functions for the next stage of growth,” the company said in a statement shared with TechCabal on Monday. “The company is moving to a structure of platform groups made up of small, focused product-area teams, each owning what it builds from end to end.”

Moniepoint heavily hired engineers and product managers as it grew to a unicorn valuation, building several financial products and a range of internal tools. As the teams grew, so did the layers of review and sign-off that slow large tech companies down.

The restructuring is Moniepoint’s answer. Small teams will each own a product from build to operation, and new platform architects will design and oversee the shared systems beneath them.

Much of a product manager’s job is coordination: writing specifications, setting priorities, and passing work from design to engineering to quality assurance. When one team owns a product end to end, there are fewer handoffs, and fewer people are needed to manage them.

“This model is designed for a business of the company’s size and ambition, giving teams greater autonomy and clearer accountability, while enabling faster product development, greater operational reliability, more consistent service for a growing customer base, and smoother expansion into new markets,” Moniepoint added in the statement.

Platform ownership

Moniepoint said the new structure requires fewer roles in some areas while creating others. As a result, some existing roles will become redundant. The company said it would consider affected employees for open positions elsewhere in the business and would initiate redundancy consultations only where it cannot identify suitable roles.

Employees in backend, frontend, mobile and quality-assurance engineering, as well as product management, are affected. The changes apply across the countries where Moniepoint operates.

Employees will be assessed against written criteria covering delivery and adaptability, work quality, their track record, and length of service. Engineering leaders will score staff, and the human resources team will review the scores across teams. Before any role is confirmed as redundant, the company will check for open roles that could suit the person.

The restructuring comes as Moniepoint expands its financial services business and decides where to deploy its resources.

Founded in 2015 as TeamApt, Moniepoint became a unicorn in October 2024 after a $110 million Series C round. The company says its subsidiaries process more than $400 billion in digital payments a year. In March, it bought a 78% stake in Kenya’s Sumac Microfinance Bank and, in August, phased out MonieWorld, its UK remittance product, less than 18 months after launch.

The job cuts come as Moniepoint continues to hire. The company hired more than 120 people in October, according to one employee, and brought in several heads of department from outside Nigeria, according to another. In May, Tosin Eniolorunda, Moniepoint’s chief executive officer, said the company was struggling to fill about 500 vacancies, later clarifying that the shortage was in senior technical talent.

Earlier this year, Moniepoint discussed internally how artificial intelligence could streamline product management, according to one employee. While the company did not name AI a driver of the restructuring, the discussion reflects a wider question of whether automation and new ways of organising work will enable technology companies to deliver more with smaller teams. In February, Zap Africa, a Nigerian cryptocurrency startup, cut 44% of its workforce as “part of an AI-driven efficiency shift.”

Wider shift

Moniepoint is not the first technology company to argue that smaller teams and clearer ownership can improve productivity. In February, Block, the parent company of Square and Cash App, cut 4,000 jobs, about 40% of its workforce. Chief executive Jack Dorsey linked the cuts to AI tools and a move towards “smaller and flatter teams.”

Across Africa, companies have also reduced staff while trying to improve profitability or refocus operations. Branch laid off employees in Kenya and Nigeria in May, despite reporting about $30 million in profit in 2025. That same month, Jumia said it would cut about 200 jobs as it incorporated AI into operations, logistics, finance, and marketing.

TechCabal Insights found that restructuring was the most common reason African tech companies gave for layoffs between January 2023 and March 2026, while one cited AI. If smaller teams work for the companies that try them, and AI keeps getting better at the specialised tasks those teams used to share, more African tech companies will hire fewer people to do the same work.

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