Work out which of the six you are in, then do the fix in that section. The table near the end matches each message to its cause.
The recipient's bank is not on the app's list
Every UK app that sends to Nigeria keeps its own list of the Nigerian banks it can pay into. Those lists change. If the recipient's bank is not on the list, you get "recipient bank not supported" or "cannot verify recipient bank", even when the account number is correct and the bank is open.
The fix. Ask your sister if she has a second account at one of the older banks (GTBank, Zenith, Access, First Bank, UBA). Wise, Remitly and WorldRemit all pay into those. If she does not have one, open Wise instead. Its list also has newer digital banks such as Kuda and Moniepoint. LemFi is another app to try. If that also fails, the mechanism is not the bank list. Move to the next section.
The recipient's BVN or NIN is not properly linked
A Nigerian account needs a Bank Verification Number (BVN), a National Identification Number (NIN), or both, linked to it. A basic Tier 1 account or wallet needs at least one. Tier 2 and Tier 3 accounts need both. A Tier 1 account with neither can be frozen, so no money goes in or out. This comes from a Central Bank of Nigeria directive from December 2023.
The Central Bank's tier rules from 2013 also bar international transfers on Tier 1 accounts and keep Tier 2 accounts for transfers within Nigeria. These rules do not say how this applies to money paid in by a transfer app. So your sister should ask the bank or wallet firm if the account can take money from abroad.
In practice, banks also flag accounts where the details on the two numbers do not agree, such as a different name or date of birth. Some UK apps check the account when you type its number, and a flagged account can fail that check. What you see is a generic "cannot verify recipient", and the send is refused before you have paid a penny.
Almost nothing on the sender's side will fix this, because the problem is on the receiving side.
The fix. Ask your sister to check with her bank that the account has the numbers its tier needs, and that they show the same name and date of birth. If the bank finds a problem, she should ask what the fix needs. Once the bank confirms the account is clear, retry the send. The Nigeria guide explains what each tier needs.
Your UK card is being declined on the send
A card that has paid for transfers before can still be declined on this one. Your card's bank may have seen the payment as higher risk and blocked it. The app shows "card declined", and your bank's app may show a fraud alert you did not see, or nothing at all.
The fix. Fund the send a different way. See if the app lets you pay by bank transfer or by open banking (a direct one-tap approval from your bank's app). Both can go through where a card is refused. If you must use a card, try a different one from a different bank. If you have to stay on the same card, call your bank first and tell them you are about to send money to Nigeria through a licensed app. Ask them to approve the next attempt.
Your own profile needs a top-up on the paperwork
UK apps check every customer's identity documents again every so often. Some apps check more often on some sending routes than on others, and any one send can start the check. If your last proof of address was uploaded eighteen months ago, or your ID has since expired, the app can pause you at the send screen and ask for a fresh document. The screen usually says something like "we need to check a few things" or "your account needs verification".
The fix. Open the profile or settings tab in the app and upload what it asks for: a passport or driving licence photo, a recent utility bill or bank statement. Wait for the check to clear, then retry the send. If the app does not show you a clear path to upload the document, message support inside the app and say the send was blocked on an identity check. They will send you the direct link.
The app has paused the Nigeria route
Now and then a UK app pauses all sends to Nigeria. A pause stops every customer's sends, so nothing about your account or your recipient caused it. The app says "currently unavailable" or "not sending to Nigeria at the moment".
To confirm a pause, check the app's help centre, or tap through to any note in the app. The home page may not mention it.
The fix. Try a different app. If Wise is paused, try LemFi, and the other way around. Sendwave, WorldRemit and Remitly are other choices. If two apps in a row refuse the same send with the same "currently unavailable" phrasing, that is a strong sign the whole route is having a bad day; wait a day and try again from the app you trust most.
If the send is urgent and small, cash pickup at a Western Union or MoneyGram counter is usually still open when a bank payout pause is on. In Nigeria, a transfer worth more than $200 (about £150 on 4 November) must be paid into an account, not in cash, so the counter only helps up to that limit.
You are sending to a wallet on an app that only pays bank accounts
If your sister uses OPay, PalmPay, Kuda or Moniepoint, she has an account number that looks exactly like a bank account number. It is ten digits. So when you type it into the recipient screen, the app tries to send to it as if it were a bank account. Some UK apps can pay a mobile wallet in Nigeria directly, and the send goes through. Others can only pay a traditional bank. On those, the recipient step fails and you get "recipient bank not supported" even though the wallet is real and open.
The fix. Switch to an app that pays the wallet directly. Remitly pays OPay, PalmPay, Moniepoint and Paga. Wise can pay OPay, PalmPay, Paga, Kuda and Moniepoint too: pick the name from Wise's bank list. Check that the wallet is in the app's list before you pay. On Remitly, pick the wallet name from the dropdown at the recipient step, not "bank transfer", and enter the same ten-digit number. The name check should now match.
If you have to stay on your current app, ask your sister for the linked bank account she uses to top the wallet up, and send there instead; she can move it into the wallet in her app in a few taps.
Which of the six are you in
| What the app said | The mechanism | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Recipient bank not supported / cannot verify recipient bank | Bank not on the app's list, or wallet mistaken for a bank account | Try a second bank, or an app that pays the wallet |
| Cannot verify recipient | A BVN or NIN problem on the recipient's account | The recipient checks with their bank |
| Card declined | UK card blocked by your card's bank | Switch to bank transfer or open banking |
| We need to check a few things / account needs verification | Your own ID or address check | Upload the document the app asks for |
| Currently unavailable / not sending to Nigeria | The app has paused the whole Nigeria route | Switch to a second app, or wait a day and try again |
| Recipient bank not supported (on a wallet) | Wallet on a bank-only app | Switch app, or send to the linked bank account |
What to do first, if you are stuck
Do not spend an hour trying to fix the app in front of you. Open a second one. Keep two apps installed, such as Wise and LemFi. If one refuses, try the other. That tells you a lot more than another hour of guessing at the first one.
If both apps say "cannot verify recipient", the problem is probably on the recipient's side, not yours. Start with the BVN and NIN on her account. Ask her to check with her bank, then try again.
If the send has to arrive the same day and both apps are down, cash pickup at a Western Union or MoneyGram counter near her is usually still open. It costs more and the exchange rate is worse. It also only works up to the $200 limit above. For more than that, send to her bank account, or to her mobile wallet from an app that pays one. Ask her first if the account can take that amount: basic accounts and wallets have low limits. For a recipient with no account at all, see how to send money without a bank account.
If the transfer had already left the app when the trouble started, this is not the piece you need. That case is covered in transfer help, which walks through the four things that go wrong after the money is on its way: name mismatch, complete but not arrived, wrong account, and cancelled refund. The Nigeria-side rules that sit behind most of the refusals above are in the Nigeria guide and in the piece on the two exchange rates you see. If the recipient does not have a Nigerian bank account at all, see visiting Nigeria without one.
Corrections
- 2026-11-06: An earlier version of this page said WorldRemit pays OPay and Paga wallets. WorldRemit's Nigeria page lists those wallets, but its own quote tool showed only bank and airtime from the UK to Nigeria, so the line is cut.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said a recipient's BVN and NIN must both be linked and agree on name, date of birth and phone number, as a rule for every account. The December 2023 directive says Tier 1 needs one of the two, Tier 2 and Tier 3 need both, and the freeze is for Tier 1 accounts with neither; matching details is what banks check in practice.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page gave fix times, a reason why apps pause Nigeria, a claim that newer banks go through settlement banks, a claim that Monzo and Starling cards work where others fail, and shares of how many people do something. We could not source these, so they are gone. It also said to send more than $200 to a mobile wallet without saying that basic accounts and wallets have low limits; it now says so.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said every UK app can pay into the older Nigerian banks, that Wise and LemFi between them cover almost every bank, that a BVN or NIN problem is fixed at the bank branch, that two apps refusing with the same wording means a problem on the recipient's side, and that cash pickup stays open when digital payouts stop. We could read the five banks on Wise, Remitly and WorldRemit only, a bank cannot correct a NIN, and the same wording can also mean a paused route or a card problem, so the page now says only what we can support.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page did not give the Central Bank's 2013 rules, which bar international transfers on Tier 1 and keep Tier 2 for transfers within Nigeria. Those rules do not say how this applies to money paid in by a transfer app, so the page now says to ask the bank or wallet firm first.
- 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page said Remitly pays Kuda wallets. Remitly's UK pages for Nigeria list OPay, PalmPay, Moniepoint and Paga, not Kuda, so the fix now names those four and says Wise can pay a Kuda account as a bank account.
- 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page said UK apps have to check your ID more often on sends to Nigeria because Nigeria is on a list. No current rule says that (Nigeria came off the FATF list of countries that need extra checks in October 2025), so the section now says only that some apps check more often on some routes.
- 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page offered cash pickup as the same-day fallback without saying that in Nigeria a transfer worth more than $200 (about £150) must be paid into an account, not in cash. Both places now give that limit.
- 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page said LemFi and Sendwave pay Nigerian mobile wallets. Their own Nigeria pages list bank accounts (and, for Sendwave, cash pickup), not wallets; the fix now names Remitly and WorldRemit.
- 2026-08-23: An earlier version of this page dated the BVN and NIN linkage requirement to "1 May 2026" and named "Post No Debit" as the flag that stops incoming naira. The linkage requirement is not new and the CBN circular effective 1 May 2026 is about a different matter (BVN phone-number changes, a temporary fraud watch-list, and age at enrolment). The flag that stops incoming credits is "Post No Debit or Credit"; a plain "Post No Debit" flag lets money arrive but not leave. The paragraph has been rewritten to describe the mechanism plainly without misattributing the rule or the flag. The same update also dropped a claim that Wise offers direct wallet payout in Nigeria (LemFi, WorldRemit and Sendwave do; Wise pays Nigerian bank accounts) and fixed four internal links to review pages that did not exist.