Overview

Direct Direct debit is a pull‑payment method that lets a third party, with the customer’s permission, debit the customer’s bank account on agreed dates. It’s commonly used for things like bills, subscriptions, loan repayments, and other recurring payments.

This permission is called an authorization. The customer approves the authorization on their bank account, and once it becomes active, the authorized business can debit the account based on the agreed schedule or terms. In simple terms, the authorization is the customer's "go‑ahead" that allows direct debits to happen.

How Kora’s direct debit solution works

Kora’s direct debit runs on the NIBSS infrastructure, but we’ve removed all the stress that normally comes with the traditional setup - no bank visits, no long waiting period, and no manual paperwork.

With our flow, an authorization is active within minutes of the customer completing the required ₦50 token payment to NIBSS. This one‑time approval happens entirely online and must be completed before any debit can be initiated.

Here’s how it works:

You create an authorization using your customer's bank details.
The customer completes the NIBSS approval (the ₦50 token charge), which activates the authorization.
As soon as the bank approves the authorization, Kora marks it as active and sends a direct_debit.auth webhook with status: "success". The account is immediately debit‑ready.
Once active, you can debit the customer's account as often as needed (variable) or let Kora process scheduled debits automatically (fixed).

Here are some common use cases:

Charging a customer’s bank account directly
Setting up recurring or scheduled payments
Collecting loan repayments
Billing for subscription services

These APIs allow you to:

Create authorizations (fixed or variable).
Retrieve authorization status.
Initiate variable direct debits
Receive webhook notifications for authorization activation and debit outcomes

Important Links

Use the following links to get started with Direct Debit on Kora: