Verifying your Customers

The Monnify Verification APIs allow you to confirm the accuracy of your customers' identity and account details before performing any financial transaction. This helps you reduce failed transfers, prevent fraud, and meet KYC compliance requirements. This guide covers all four verification services and how to use each one.

Environment and billing

The Name Enquiry API is free and available on both the Sandbox and Live environments. All other verification APIs (BVN and Account Name Validation, BVN Information Verification, and NIN Verification) are available on the Live environment only. Requests to these APIs will fail if your Monnify wallet balance is below the cost of the service being requested.

Name Enquiry

The Name Enquiry service lets you look up and confirm the name tied to a bank account number before initiating a transfer. Make a GET request to the Validate Bank Account API with the account number and bank code.

Name Enquiry — cURL

1curl --request GET \
2--url 'https://sandbox.monnify.com/api/v1/disbursements/account/validate?accountNumber=0123456789&bankCode=058' \
3--header 'Authorization: Bearer {access_token}'

Name Enquiry Response

1{
2"requestSuccessful": true,
3"responseMessage": "success",
4"responseCode": "0",
5"responseBody": {
6  "accountNumber": "0123456789",
7  "accountName": "John Doe",
8  "bankCode": "058",
9  "bankName": "GTBank"
10}
11}

BVN and Account Name Validation

This service lets you verify that the BVN information supplied by your customers matches what is registered on their BVN record. Make a POST request to the BVN and Account Name Match API with the customer's BVN, bank code, and account number.

BVN and Account Name Validation — cURL

1curl --request POST \
2--url https://sandbox.monnify.com/api/v1/vas/bvn-account-match \
3--header 'Authorization: Bearer {access_token}' \
4--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
5--data '{
6  "bvn": "12345678901",
7  "bankCode": "058",
8  "accountNumber": "0123456789",
9  "name": "John Doe"
10}'

BVN and Account Name Validation Response

1{
2"requestSuccessful": true,
3"responseMessage": "success",
4"responseCode": "0",
5"responseBody": {
6  "bvn": "12345678901",
7  "accountNumber": "0123456789",
8  "bankCode": "058",
9  "accountName": "John Doe",
10  "bvnAccountNameMatch": true
11}
12}

BVN Information Verification

This service allows you to verify that the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and account number provided by your customers match the BVN and account number linked to the account. Make a POST request to the BVN Details Match API with the customer's BVN and account details.

Pricing

This service costs ₦10 per successful request. Ensure you account for this in your integration design, particularly if you are running high-volume verifications.

BVN Information Verification — cURL

1curl --request POST \
2--url https://sandbox.monnify.com/api/v1/vas/bvn-details-match \
3--header 'Authorization: Bearer {access_token}' \
4--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
5--data '{
6  "bvn": "12345678901",
7  "name": "John Doe",
8  "dateOfBirth": "01-Jan-1990",
9  "mobileNo": "08012345678"
10}'

BVN Information Verification Response

1{
2"requestSuccessful": true,
3"responseMessage": "success",
4"responseCode": "0",
5"responseBody": {
6  "bvn": "12345678901",
7  "name": "John Doe",
8  "dateOfBirth": "01-Jan-1990",
9  "mobileNo": "08012345678",
10  "bvnInformationMatch": true
11}
12}

NIN Verification

This service allows you to verify the National Identification Number (NIN) supplied by your customers. Make a POST request to the NIN Verification API with the customer's NIN.

Pricing

This service costs ₦60 per successful request. Ensure you account for this in your integration design, particularly if you are running high-volume verifications.

NIN Verification — cURL

1curl --request POST \
2--url https://sandbox.monnify.com/api/v1/vas/nin-verification \
3--header 'Authorization: Bearer {access_token}' \
4--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
5--data '{
6  "nin": "98765432101",
7  "name": "John Doe",
8  "dateOfBirth": "01-Jan-1990"
9}'

NIN Verification Response

1{
2"requestSuccessful": true,
3"responseMessage": "success",
4"responseCode": "0",
5"responseBody": {
6  "nin": "98765432101",
7  "firstName": "John",
8  "lastName": "Doe",
9  "dateOfBirth": "01-Jan-1990",
10  "gender": "Male",
11  "phoneNumber": "08012345678",
12  "ninInformationMatch": true
13}
14}

Response Reference

Field	Type	Description
`requestSuccessful`	Boolean	Indicates whether the API request was received and processed successfully.
`responseCode`	String	`0` means success. Any other value indicates a failure — check `responseMessage` for details.
`bvnAccountNameMatch`	Boolean	Returned by the BVN and Account Name Validation service. `true` means the name matches the BVN record; `false` means it does not.
`bvnInformationMatch`	Boolean	Returned by the BVN Information Verification service. `true` means the supplied details match the BVN record.
`ninInformationMatch`	Boolean	Returned by the NIN Verification service. `true` means the supplied details match the NIN record.

Error Reference

Error	Meaning	Recommended Action
Invalid account number	The account number supplied could not be found at the specified bank.	Ask the customer to confirm their account number and bank.
Invalid bank code	The bank code is not recognized on Monnify.	Use the Get Banks API to confirm the correct bank code.
Account number could not be validated	Name enquiry failed — the destination bank may be temporarily unavailable.	Retry after a short delay. If the issue persists, contact [email protected].
Invalid BVN	The BVN supplied is not a valid 11-digit BVN.	Ask the customer to confirm their BVN.
Invalid NIN	The NIN supplied is not a valid 11-digit NIN.	Ask the customer to confirm their NIN.
Service unavailable	The verification service or the upstream identity provider is temporarily unavailable.	Retry after a short delay. Contact [email protected] if the issue persists.

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