The problem we started with
Anyone who has bought data from a VTU app in Nigeria knows the pattern. You pay, the app says pending, nothing arrives. Sometimes it lands an hour later. Sometimes it never does, and getting the money back means a WhatsApp message, a screenshot, and waiting on someone to check manually. The amounts are small enough that most people give up, which is exactly why the problem persists.
That is a systems problem, not a customer service problem. If the platform cannot tell whether a purchase succeeded, no amount of apologising fixes it. So the first thing we built was not the shop, it was the accounting underneath it.
What that means in practice
Every naira is traceable
Wallet balances are not a number in a column that somebody can edit. Every movement writes an entry to an append-only ledger with the balance after it, so any balance in the system can be explained line by line, months later.
Failure is the platform’s problem
A purchase that does not land is reversed automatically inside a fixed window. That is a scheduled job checking every pending transaction, not a promise in a support script.
Money moves under a PIN
Signing in is not enough to spend. Every debit needs a transaction PIN or your fingerprint, and repeated wrong PINs lock the ability to spend without locking you out of your own account.
Prices you can check
The prices on our own landing page are read from the same catalog the app sells from. We cannot advertise one number and charge another, because there is only one number.
Who we buy from
We are not a network and we are not a bank. Airtime, data and bill payments are delivered through licensed aggregators who hold the direct relationships with MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile, the electricity discos and the pay-TV providers. Card payments and bank transfers are processed by Paystack, who are licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Your money moves between regulated parties; what we add is the wallet, the pricing and the accounting around it.
We hold no card details. When you fund by transfer you are sent to a dedicated account number in your own name, and when you pay by card the card never touches our servers.
How we make money
On the margin between what an aggregator charges us and what you pay, and on a small flat fee when you fund your wallet. Both are visible: the funding fee is shown on the screen where you fund, and the price you pay for a bundle is the price on this website. We would rather be boring about this than surprise anyone at checkout.
Where we are going
More billers, better coverage outside the major cities, and eventually the ability for small shops to resell from their own float. The order depends on what people actually ask for, so if something you pay for every month is missing, tell us.
Needs your details before launch
Still missing from this page: the year you started trading, and the names of the aggregators you actually contract with. The entity details are set in apps/web/lib/company.ts.
The claims about Paystack and licensed aggregators match the platform as built, but check them against your signed agreements before publishing.
Questions we have not answered?
Support is a real person, not a form that disappears. Reach us and we will answer.