As Nigeria’s monetary companies business strikes in the direction of wider adoption of contactless funds, Nearpays has outlined a collection of safety measures designed to guard retailers and customers towards fraud, unauthorised transactions and the publicity of delicate monetary info.
The monetary expertise firm stated its SoftPOS fee platform incorporates necessary private identification quantity (PIN) authentication, transaction monitoring and extra application-level safeguards meant to strengthen the safety of smartphone-based fee acceptance.
The measures come amid renewed consideration to fee safety following the introduction of Google Wallet and Google Pay in Nigeria, which permits eligible cardholders to make supported transactions utilizing suitable Android units.
Victor Daniyan, chief govt officer of Nearpays, stated the corporate’s safety technique is targeted on guaranteeing that the comfort of contactless funds doesn’t come on the expense of shopper safety.
“At Nearpays, we have made security a priority. Card information is not stored on the device, and transactions are processed through a verified channel,” Daniyan stated. “This is one of the reasons we partnered with Visa.”
He stated the corporate continues to strengthen its safety infrastructure as contactless fee adoption expands.
The safety issues are notably related in Nigeria, the place rising reliance on digital transactions has heightened the necessity for efficient fraud prevention and monetary knowledge safety.
According to a 2025 report by Agusto & Co., Nigerian monetary establishments recorded N52.3 billion in fraud-related losses in 2024, highlighting the monetary implications of weaknesses throughout the broader banking and funds ecosystem.
The determine covers monetary sector fraud typically and doesn’t characterize losses particularly attributable to contactless funds.
Mercy Ogoji, chief working officer of Nearpays, stated the corporate has adopted authentication necessities designed to cut back the potential of unauthorised transactions.
“Our SoftPOS solution requires PIN authentication for every transaction, adding an extra layer of protection against fraud and unauthorised payments,” Ogoji stated.
She defined that Nearpays additionally operates a fraud-monitoring module meant to establish suspicious transaction exercise, supported by the corporate’s expertise and safety companions.
Nigeria’s regulatory framework already offers safeguards for contactless transactions.
Under pointers issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June 2023, contactless funds with out further verification are topic to a N15,000 single-transaction restrict and a N50,000 every day cumulative restrict.
Transactions exceeding these thresholds require acceptable verification and authorisation, whereas taking part monetary establishments and fee service suppliers are anticipated to implement related danger administration controls.
The regulatory provisions are meant to encourage innovation whereas addressing dangers related with rising fee applied sciences.
Mfonobong Ekott, chief expertise officer of Nearpays, stated the corporate has launched technical safeguards to cut back the publicity of delicate info throughout fee processing.
“Our SoftPOS app also includes safeguards designed to prevent users from running other software or taking screenshots while a transaction is being processed,” Ekott stated.
“We have implemented firewall protection and Microsoft Azure Sentinel for security monitoring.”
According to the corporate, these measures type a part of a broader safety structure that features fraud detection and the safety of fee info throughout transaction processing.
With extra customers having access to contactless fee companies, fee suppliers face the problem of balancing sooner transactions with the safety requirements wanted to maintain confidence in Nigeria’s digital monetary system.
