A GTBank customer can now add a debit card to Google Wallet and pay online without retyping the card number, and businesses on the group’s Squad gateway can accept the same payment, according to Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO).
In a statement dated 27 October 2026, GTCO said 2 of its subsidiaries, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) and the payments firm HabariPay, were live with Google Pay “on the day it launches in Nigeria”. The group said it was present at both ends of the same transaction: the person paying and the business being paid.
What changes for GTBank customers
Customers add an eligible GTBank debit card once, through the Google Wallet app on Android or through their Google Account. At checkout, they choose Google Pay, pick the card and confirm.
Google Pay swaps the card number for a digital token, so the merchant never receives the real card details. GTCO said the card works wherever Google Pay is accepted online, in Nigeria and abroad, including for subscriptions, travel bookings, food delivery and bills.
What changes for Squad merchants
On the merchant side, “Pay with Google Pay” now sits at the top of the Squad checkout, alongside card, bank transfer, USSD, bank payments and buy-now-pay-later options. HabariPay runs Squad and said the option is enabled by default for every business on the gateway. Merchants can turn it off.
Squad merchants set up for international payments can also accept Google Pay from customers worldwide, which GTCO pitched as a route to buyers in the diaspora.
“Most failed online payments are not refused; they are abandoned,” said Segun Agbaje, Group Chief Executive Officer of GTCO. “Somewhere along the way the customer gives up, and the business never learns about the sale it lost.”
Eduofon Japhet, Managing Director of HabariPay, said Squad businesses get Google Pay “inside the checkout they already use”, with “nothing new to integrate”.
Not the first Google Pay option for Nigerian merchants
Google Pay acceptance is not new to Nigerian online checkouts. Interswitch announced support for Google Pay on its payment gateway in September 2023, and Paystack’s help documentation also lists it as a way for merchants to take payments. GTCO is claiming a first-day launch on both the issuing and acquiring sides, rather than being the first gateway to offer it.
The distinction matters for how much changes in practice. Merchants on gateways such as Interswitch or Paystack could already offer the option. The new element for Squad is that its own banking sister company can now issue cards that work with it.
GTCO did not say how many GTBank cards are eligible, which card networks are supported, or how many Squad merchants will see the option. It also did not say whether the Google Pay launch covers other Nigerian banks. GTCO operates in 11 African countries and the United Kingdom, but the announcement concerns Nigeria only.
Payment firms in Nigeria are also working to a central bank requirement to store data at home by 2027, which shapes how any wallet or gateway handles customer data.
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