Payouts
Send money to Nigerian bank accounts.
One API to pay out from your prepaid balance — with the account holder confirmed by the bank before anything moves, and an honest answer when a bank does not give one.
curl https://api.vertexbridge.io/v1/partner/payouts/enquiry \
-H "X-API-Key: $VERTEXBRIDGE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "account_number": "'"$ACCOUNT_NUMBER"'", "bank_code": "'"$BANK_CODE"'" }'curl https://api.vertexbridge.io/v1/partner/payouts \
-H "X-API-Key: $VERTEXBRIDGE_API_KEY" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "amount_minor": 500000, "account_number": "'"$ACCOUNT_NUMBER"'",
"bank_code": "'"$BANK_CODE"'", "your_reference": "order-1042" }'Amounts are integers in kobo. Bank codes come from GET /v1/partner/payouts/banks — send them back exactly as listed. Use a new Idempotency-Key for each payout, and the same one for every retry of it.
How it works
Step 1: Ask who owns the account
Take the bank’s code from our bank list, then send it with the account number. We ask the bank and return the holder’s name as the bank spells it — show it to your user before anything moves.
Step 2: Send, with an idempotency key
Every payout carries an Idempotency-Key. Retry with the same key and you get the original answer back; nothing is sent twice.
Step 3: Read the outcome
You get our reference, the state, the name the bank gave, what the beneficiary receives, our fee, and the total taken from your balance. Look the payout up by its reference at any time for where it stands now.
Built for money that cannot come back
A bank transfer is irreversible. These are the properties that matter when it goes wrong.
We check the name ourselves
When you send, we re-run the name check with the bank and pay the name the bank gives. There is no name field to pass, so there is nothing to get wrong.
Retries are safe
A payout without an Idempotency-Key is refused before it is read. With one, a retry returns the first answer — and we reuse your reference with the rail, so it deduplicates too.
Indeterminate, not a guess
If a bank does not answer clearly, the payout is indeterminate — never reported as failed. The money may have moved; we find out, and the answer appears when you look the payout up. Do not retry it or refund your user while we do.
Reserved before it is sent
The amount and fee are held from your prepaid balance before the bank is called, and released only if the payout definitely fails.
The integration, step by step, is in the payouts guide. How retries work is in Idempotency, what an unclear answer means in Indeterminate, and every field and state in the API reference.
Set up payouts for your platform
Payouts are enabled per account. Tell us your volumes and we will set up your sandbox and agree your rates.