Nomba and Volume has been working together to facilitate British Pound Sterling (GBP) directly from UK banks for Nigerian businesses. Volume is a London-based fintech payment platform that uses Open Banking to let customers pay directly from their bank account instead of using cards. It's a a “pay-by-bank” checkout system for online payments.
Open Banking Limited is part of the UK financial infrastructure that allows banks and fintech companies to securely share banking data (with customer permission). Nomba, on the other hand, is a Nigerian fintech company that provides payment and banking tools (including POS terminals) for businesses (especially small and medium-sized merchants).
So, Nomba-Volume partnership will allows Nigerian businesses to receive bank-to-bank payments from customers that use any of the UK’s major banks. reducing the reliance on international card processors that have dominated cross-border payments. Instead of using card details, customers authorise payments directly from their banking apps.
However, the company says the new channel is not designed to replace existing payment methods but to expand how merchants can collect international payments. According to Nomba CEO Yinka Adewale, Nigerian businesses' limitation to cards payment often relying on costly intermediaries and facing higher transaction fees. The new channel is intended to give merchants an additional option that makes cross-border payments cheaper.
How to use the integration
If a customer in the UK is buying from a Nigerian merchant that uses Nomba as payment gateway, the customer will need choose “Pay by bank” as checkout page. “Pay by bank” is the payment option powered by Volume.
This helps eliminate the use of card details. The customer will approve the payment directly in their banking app, and the payment will be sent through the UK’s instant bank transfer network called Faster Payments.
Volume receives and processes the payment in the UK, then Nomba credits the Nigerian merchant instantly into a GBP wallet.
Once the payment arrives in merchant's wallet, they can chooses what to do with the money: keep the funds in pounds (GBP), convert them to naira (NGN), convert to US dollars (USD), or move them into other currencies depending on business needs.
According to Nomba, exchange rates are set in line with market trends to remain competitive for merchants. The company also noted, in a discussion with media, that merchants' GBP wallets are being managed by an undisclosed electronic money institution licenced in the UK.
