For shops, restaurants and anyone paying terminal rent
How to take card payments without renting a POS machine
What the options actually are for collecting card and transfer payments in Nigeria, what each one costs you in practice, and when a terminal is still the right answer.
The question
A terminal is one way to take a card. It is not the only one.
Most businesses end up with a POS terminal because it is what was offered, not because they compared it to anything. It is worth knowing what else exists before the next rental cycle.
This is a plain account of the options. Which is right depends on where your customer is standing when they pay, and that is the question to start from.
The options
Four ways payment reaches you
A POS terminal
A physical card machine, usually rented. Good when the customer is in front of you and expects to tap or insert. You carry the rent whether you sell or not.
Bank transfer
Free and universal, and the reason it dominates. The cost is on your side: matching transfers to orders by hand, and the screenshots that can be faked.
A payment link
The customer pays from their own phone, by card or transfer. No hardware on your side at all, and the payment can carry the order with it.
Cash
Still real, still fine. The problem is not the cash, it is that nothing records what it was for unless someone writes it down.
What it actually costs
The costs that do not appear on the invoice
Terminal rent
- Today
- Paid every month
- With TAB
- Paid whether you sold or not
A fixed cost on an uneven business. In a slow month it is the bill that hurts most.
Matching transfers
- Today
- An hour at the end of the night
- With TAB
- Time you are not paid for
The most commonly ignored cost in a Nigerian small business, because it costs time rather than naira.
The wait to pay
- Today
- A customer waiting to be noticed
- With TAB
- A sale you may not make
In a restaurant this is a table you cannot turn. In a shop it is someone who left.
Disputes
- Today
- A screenshot you cannot verify
- With TAB
- Goods gone, payment not arrived
Rare, but expensive, and the reason a payment that records itself is worth something.
The honest answer
When a terminal is still right
If most of your customers are standing in front of you and expect to tap a card, a terminal is a good tool and you should keep it. The mistake is not owning one, it is assuming you must.
The better question is whether you need a terminal for every sale, or whether the ones that happen in a chat, on a link or at a table could be paid for another way. Most businesses find the answer is a mix.
Where TAB fits
One mention, then you can go
TAB collects card (NGN or USD) and bank transfer from the customer's own phone, or records a payment you took on the machine you already have, so either path ends with the payment attached to the order. Keeping your terminal is a supported answer, not a workaround.
Think TAB might help?
Tell us what you run and we will say plainly whether it fits, including when it does not.
More guides
For anyone already selling in the chat
How to sell on WhatsApp without losing track of orders
Read the guideFor boutiques, provisions stores and anyone counting by hand
How to keep stock straight in a small shop
Read the guide