NGN bank transfers: a complete guide for businesses

How NGN bank transfers work, what they cost in 2026, why they fail, and how businesses can accept and reconcile them at scale.

Bank transfer is how most Nigerian businesses get paid. A customer opens their banking app, enters a ten-digit account number, confirms the name that appears and taps send. The money usually arrives in seconds. In 2024 alone, Nigerians completed more than 12 billion instant transfers, according to NIBSS, the company that runs the country's interbank payment system.

For the business receiving the money, the transfer is the easy part. The hard part is knowing who paid, what they paid for, and what to do when a transfer goes missing. This guide explains how NGN bank transfers work, what they cost, where they go wrong, and how businesses can accept and reconcile them at scale.

Key takeaways

• Most NGN transfers between banks run on NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP). The recipient's bank credits them within seconds, and banks settle with each other later in batches.
• Since 1 January 2026, the sender pays a flat ₦50 stamp duty on transfers of ₦10,000 or more, on top of any bank fee.
• Receiving transfers is simple. Reconciling them is the real work, and per-order or permanent account numbers solve most of it.

What is an NGN bank transfer?

An NGN bank transfer moves naira from one Nigerian bank account to another. The recipient is identified by a ten-digit NUBAN account number and their bank. Customers can send one from a mobile banking app, internet banking, USSD or a branch.

A transfer between two accounts at the same bank is handled on that bank's own books. A transfer between two different banks or fintechs goes through NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP), the real-time platform that NIBSS launched in 2011. NIP replaced NEFT, an older system where a transfer took about 24 hours to complete.

How does an NGN bank transfer work?

An interbank transfer on NIP happens in four steps:

1. Name enquiry. The sender enters the account number and chooses the bank. The sender's bank asks NIP to confirm the account, and the sender sees the account holder's name before they confirm. This is what catches most mistyped account numbers.
2. Debit. The sender's bank takes the money from the sender's account and sends the payment instruction to NIP.
3. Credit. NIP passes the instruction to the recipient's bank, which credits the account straight away and sends the recipient an alert.
4. Settlement. The banks settle what they owe each other later. NIBSS says this happens in batches, on a deferred net basis, four times a day. The recipient doesn't wait for it: their bank has already credited them.

Every NIP transfer carries a session ID, a long reference number that both banks can use to trace it. It's on the sender's receipt. If a transfer ever goes missing, the session ID is the first thing a bank will ask for.

How long does an NGN bank transfer take?

Usually a few seconds. NIBSS says an NIP transfer typically completes in less than a minute. When one takes longer, the cause is usually at the sending or receiving bank, such as a system outage or a hold for a fraud check, rather than in NIP itself. Our guide to how long a bank transfer takes in Nigeria covers delays and what to do about them.

How much does an NGN bank transfer cost?

Two charges can apply, and both are paid by the sender:

• The bank's transfer fee. Banks charge for interbank transfers within the limits of the Central Bank of Nigeria's Guide to Charges. In April 2026 the CBN published a draft revised guide proposing new caps, so check your bank's current tariff for the exact amount.
• Stamp duty. Since 1 January 2026, transfers of ₦10,000 or more carry a flat ₦50 stamp duty, deducted from the sender. It replaced the Electronic Money Transfer Levy, which the receiver used to pay. Transfers below ₦10,000, salary payments and transfers between your own accounts at the same bank are exempt, as reported by Techeconomy.

Banks don't usually charge to receive a transfer. If a business collects through a payment provider, the provider charges its own processing fee for each payment it handles.

Are there limits on NGN bank transfers?

Yes, on the sender's side. Under the CBN's tiered KYC framework, how much a person can send in a day depends on how much identity information their account holds. A lower-tier account has a low daily limit, and banks can set their own limits within the CBN's rules. A customer who can't send a large payment usually needs to upgrade their account or split the payment.

Some payment providers also limit what an account can receive in a single deposit or a single day. On Bachs, a deposit over your limit isn't refused, because a bank transfer can't be stopped once it's sent. It's reviewed before it reaches your balance instead. See deposit limits.

What happens when a bank transfer fails?

Sometimes a sender is debited but the recipient isn't credited, usually because the receiving bank couldn't process the transfer. The money should then come back to the sender. A 2018 CBN circular on instant transfers fines a bank ₦10,000 when a failed NIP transfer isn't reversed within 24 hours of a complaint.

Money sent to the wrong account is harder. Under the same circular, the sender can ask their bank in writing, within 14 working days, to recover it. In practice, recovery depends on the money still being in the recipient's account.

In both cases, the sender should contact their own bank with the session ID from their receipt.

How can a business accept bank transfers?

There are three common ways, and each trades simplicity against how easy the money is to reconcile:

Three ways to accept bank transfers

Each trades simplicity against how easily the money is matched to a customer.

The account numberWho sets the amountMatched to a customerBest for

• One company account The account number: Yours, shared with everyoneWho sets the amount: The customerMatched to a customer: By handBest for: The simplest start
• A number for each paymentFrom a checkout The account number: New for each order, expires after a short timeWho sets the amount: You, before they payMatched to a customer: AutomaticallyBest for: One-off orders and invoices
• A permanent virtual account The account number: Permanent. Customers save it as a beneficiaryWho sets the amount: The customerMatched to a customer: From the sender's details and your rulesBest for: Repeat payments: retainers, rent, school fees, top-ups

• One company account for everyone. The simplest option: share your business account number. Every payment lands in the same account, so someone has to match each credit to a customer and an invoice by hand.
• A new account number for each payment. A checkout gives the customer an account number that belongs to one order and expires after a short time. The amount and the order are known in advance, so the payment is matched automatically. This suits one-off orders and invoices.
• A permanent virtual account. A number customers can save as a beneficiary and pay at any time, for any amount. This suits customers who pay you again and again, such as retainers, rent, school fees and wallet top-ups.

How do you reconcile bank transfers?

A transfer tells you who sent money and how much. It doesn't reliably tell you what it was for: customers choose the amount, the timing and the narration, and the narration is often blank or just says "payment". A dependable order for matching each credit:

1. Known payers. Save each customer's sending account number the first time you confirm a payment from them. Later transfers from that account are almost certainly theirs.
2. Invoice numbers. Ask customers to put your invoice number in the narration, and search for it.
3. Amount and timing. An exact amount from a customer with one open invoice is a strong hint, but treat it as a suggestion, not proof.
4. A review queue. Anything your rules can't place goes to a person. Don't guess.

Never release goods on the strength of a screenshot of a debit alert. Confirm the credit in your own account or through your payment provider first.

How Bachs helps you accept NGN bank transfers

• Bank transfer at checkout. Each checkout gives the customer an account number for that order, valid for 30 minutes. When the money arrives, your server gets a webhook and the order is marked paid.
• Virtual accounts. A permanent NGN account number for repeat payments. Each deposit arrives with the sender's name, bank, account number and narration, when the sender's bank passes them on, ready for your matching rules.
• Money you can use straight away. NGN payments are available in your Bachs balance as soon as they're confirmed, and you can pay out to your Nigerian bank account. See fees.

You can build and test the whole flow in the sandbox before you take a real payment.