Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) says two of its subsidiaries have gone live with Google Pay in Nigeria as the payments service launches in the country.
In a press release dated October 27, 2026, GTCO said customers of Guaranty Trust Bank Limited (GTBank) can add their GTBank debit cards to Google Wallet and pay with Google Pay online in Nigeria and internationally. The company also said businesses using Squad, the payment gateway operated by GTCO payments subsidiary HabariPay, can now offer Google Pay at checkout.
How GTCO said the payments work
According to the release, GTBank customers can add an eligible debit card to Google Wallet once and then choose Google Pay at checkout. GTCO said users would not need to type card details such as the card number, expiry date, or CVV again.
GTCO stated that Google Pay uses a secure digital token, meaning the merchant would not receive the customer’s actual card details. The company said the card can be used wherever Google Pay is accepted online, including subscriptions, travel bookings, food delivery, bills and digital services.
For Squad merchants, the release said an option labeled “Pay with Google Pay” appears at the top of the Squad checkout, alongside other payment methods including card payments, bank transfer, USSD, bank payments, and Squad’s buy-now-pay-later options. GTCO said Google Pay is enabled by default for businesses using Squad, with merchants able to turn it off.
International acceptance through Squad
GTCO said merchants set up for international payments can accept Google Pay from customers outside Nigeria. The release added that this is intended to give Nigerian businesses access to buyers abroad, including the diaspora.
The company also argued that reducing the amount of information customers must enter at checkout could help lower abandonment rates. GTCO said fewer fields can matter most to small and growing businesses, which it said make up much of Squad’s merchant base.
Company comments
GTCO Chief Executive Officer Segun Agbaje said in the release that “most failed online payments are not refused” but abandoned during checkout. He added that GTCO’s stated goal is to ensure digital payments are “ready on both sides” by aligning GTBank’s Google Pay access with Squad merchants’ ability to accept it.
HabariPay Managing Director Eduofon Japhet said the company expects merchants to benefit from the checkout integration, describing Google Pay as fitting into the existing Squad checkout flow and enabling customers to pay in “a few taps” with cards already saved in Google Wallet.
Availability and rollout
GTCO said Google Pay is available for GTBank customers from the stated launch window through the Google Wallet app on Android or via the customer’s Google Account. The release also said Google Pay will be on by default for all businesses on the Squad payment gateway starting from “today,” with merchants able to disable it.
For Squad merchants configured for international payments, GTCO said they can accept Google Pay from customers anywhere in the world.
