If you can send a text, you can send money. Your hairdresser, your driver, your sister upcountry — anyone with a phone gets it in seconds.
You received
₦12,500
from Adaeze O. · 2 minutes ago
How it works
The receiver doesn't need an account, an app, or a bank to get the money. Just a phone number and the corner shop.
Type any Nigerian phone number and how much. We pull from your bank using NIBSS direct debit. Done in seconds.
The recipient gets a text — telling them money is waiting. No links, no clicking. They go to ember.ng or dial *5573# from any phone to claim it.
Send straight to their bank, or get cash at any partner agent. They pick. The money sits safe until they do.
Why we built this
You can text anyone. You can call anyone. You can WhatsApp anyone with a phone. So why does paying still need an account number?
That question — that exact question — is why ember exists. Money should move the way conversation moves: by phone number, in seconds, to anyone. Not by account number, after three back-and-forth WhatsApps about which bank, the right spelling, the correct branch.
So we built rails on top of NIBSS — the same infrastructure your bank already uses — that work on a phone number. Anyone with a phone can be paid. Cash out at a partner agent or send straight to a bank. Their choice, not yours.
It's the kind of thing that should have existed in 2010. We figured someone should just go ahead and build it.
A note from us
We started ember because of one specific problem. Every time we tried to send money to someone, we needed their account number, the right bank, the perfect spelling. And if they weren't banked, forget it.
So we built rails that work on a phone number. The kind of rails that should have existed in 2010. Built on NIBSS — the same infrastructure that clears every Nigerian bank transfer — so the money moves the way money should.
It's not flashy. There are no games, no cashback wheels, no airtime quizzes. It's just money to anyone, in seconds, held safely until they collect it.
We're a small team in Lagos. If you have feedback or hit a problem, write to us at hello@ember.ng. Real people read it.
Every naira sent through ember is held in trust with our partner banks — separate from operating funds, NDIC-insured, and cleared on NIBSS rails. Beyond that, here's what we'll always do.
Your money is held with NDIC-insured partner banks. Not in our pocket. Not stuck in some app balance you can't get out.
No surprise fees. The amount we show you before you confirm is the amount you pay. No quiet deductions later.
We will never ask you to pay to "unlock", "verify", or "release" anything. If anyone says we did, they're lying.
Common questions
No. They just need a phone number. We send them a text saying money is waiting — no links, no clicking. They visit ember.ng on any browser, or dial *5573# from any phone, enter their own number, and choose to send to a bank or cash out at an agent.
We will never send you a link to click. If you receive a message claiming to be from ember with a link, it's a scam — ignore and delete it.
Money sent through ember is held in trust with our partner banks, separate from any operating funds. It's NDIC-insured up to ₦5,000,000 per wallet — the same protection you'd get with any Nigerian bank.
Sending money is free. Cashing out to your bank is free. Cashing out at an agent may carry a small agent fee, set by the agent — we tell you the exact amount before you confirm.
OPay and PalmPay are wallets — both you and the person you're sending to need to download the app and create an account. ember works on phone numbers — anyone you have a number for can receive, no app required. We're built on NIBSS rails so the money clears like a normal bank transfer.
Dial *5573# from any phone to send and receive without the app. Same rails, same money, just over USSD.
If the recipient hasn't redeemed yet, you can cancel from your activity feed and the money returns to your bank within minutes. Once they've cashed out or sent it to their bank, it's gone — same as any normal bank transfer.
No. We're a money-movement product built on top of NIBSS rails. The actual cash sits with our partner banks, who are licensed by the CBN. ember is built by Squareme.
Two minutes to create an account. The first send is on you.