International airlines have spent decades perfecting the customer experience, from online booking and dynamic pricing to loyalty programmes and ancillary services. Yet one of the most important parts of the customer journey remains surprisingly overlooked: how passengers actually pay.
For many airlines operating in Nigeria, the checkout experience still assumes that customers will complete their purchase using an international debit or credit card. While this approach works well in many markets, it overlooks a fundamental characteristic of the Nigerian payments landscape: Nigerians overwhelmingly prefer to pay directly from their bank accounts, particularly for high-value purchases such as airline tickets.
Nigeria represents one of the continent’s most important aviation markets, with millions of passengers travelling domestically and internationally every year. The opportunity for international airlines is not simply to fly more routes or add more capacity. It is to remove unnecessary barriers between customers who want to travel and the airlines ready to serve them.
This isn’t simply a matter of customer preference, it has become a commercial imperative. Airlines spend millions getting passengers to the checkout page, yet many lose the booking because they haven’t adapted the final click to the way Nigerians pay.
Nigerian Payments Have Evolved
Over the past decade, Nigeria has quietly become one of the world’s most sophisticated account-to-account (A2A) payment markets. Real-time bank transfers have become the default way consumers pay for everything from utility bills to school fees, rent, investments, and increasingly, travel. In 2024, Nigeria processed close to 11 billion instant payment transactions worth over ₦1.07 quadrillion, according to NIBSS.
The shift has been driven by an instant payments ecosystem that is fast, familiar, and trusted. Consumers can complete high-value transactions in seconds using their banking apps, without needing to enter lengthy card details or worry about card limits and international payment restrictions. For many Nigerians, paying by bank transfer is simply the most natural way to transact. Yet many international airlines continue to offer only card payments at checkout.
The Cost of Ignoring Local Payment Behaviour
When payment methods don’t align with customer behaviour, conversion suffers. Every prospective passenger who reaches the payment page but cannot pay using their preferred method represents lost revenue. This isn’t because demand doesn’t exist, it is because the payment experience creates unnecessary friction.
“Payments are no longer a back-office function, they are one of the most powerful commercial levers available to airlines seeking growth in Africa.”
Across Nigeria, account-to-account payments now account for a significant share of e-commerce transaction value, particularly for higher-ticket purchases. For airlines, where the average transaction is considerably larger than everyday retail spending, this behaviour is even more pronounced.
The question is no longer whether Nigerians are willing to pay digitally, rather is whether airlines are making it easy enough for them to do so.
Collection Is Only Half the Challenge
For international airlines, however, accepting naira is only part of the equation. Getting those funds back to headquarters has historically been one of the biggest operational challenges of serving the Nigerian market.
Traditional correspondent banking processes can leave airlines waiting weeks before locally collected revenues are settled in their treasury accounts. During that time, finance teams contend with foreign exchange exposure, liquidity constraints, and additional operational complexity.
These challenges have often discouraged airlines from fully embracing local payment methods, despite the clear commercial opportunity.
Modern Settlement Changes the Economics
For many international airlines, accepting local payments has never been the challenge. Getting those funds home efficiently has. To address this, OnePipe has partnered with a leading global digital asset exchange and licensed International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) in Nigeria to build Nokrin, a settlement platform purpose-built to simplify cross-border fund repatriation for international airlines operating in Nigeria.
Combined with OnePipe’s account-to-account (A2A) payment infrastructure, Nokrin enables airlines to collect payments in Nigerian Naira using customers’ preferred payment method while benefiting from a faster, more predictable path to settlement in major foreign currencies. By reducing settlement delays, improving liquidity, and minimising operational complexity, airlines can confidently localise their payment experience without introducing additional treasury friction.
Together, OnePipe and Nokrin transform local collections from an operational challenge into a commercial advantage, helping international airlines unlock greater demand in one of Africa’s largest aviation markets while ensuring revenue moves across borders as seamlessly as their passengers do.
