How to get the WhatsApp Business API in Nigeria: your number, CAC documents and Meta business verification

Before you start

This guide is for a Nigerian business connecting its own number to the WhatsApp Business API. You need a Meta business portfolio, a phone number, and a provider whose panel opens Meta's Embedded Signup. In Nigeria, Broadchat is sold through local partners, so that panel will carry your partner's name. Set aside about two hours of your own time across one or two weeks; most of the wait is Meta's review.

Connecting a number costs nothing from Meta. Charges start when you send templates, at Meta's rates for Nigerian numbers, which are set in US dollars. One note for partners and agencies: Meta's newer In-App Signup flow is not offered in Nigeria, so numbers are connected through the standard Embedded Signup window described below.

Step 1: choose or keep the number

Any number that can receive an SMS or a voice call will do: an MTN, Airtel, Glo or 9mobile line, or a fixed line that can take Meta's verification call. Pick one you will keep for years. Customers save it, and the display name, templates and quality history stay with it.

Nigeria has an advantage here. Meta added Nigeria to its coexistence countries on 15 Apr 2026, so a number already running on the WhatsApp Business app (version 2.24.17 or later) can be connected to the API without leaving the app. The owner keeps using the phone, staff answer from the shared inbox, and contacts plus up to six months of one-to-one chat history are copied across. In return, broadcast lists in the app stop working, the number sends at a fixed 20 messages a second, and the phone must open the app about every 14 days or Meta disconnects it.

A number on the ordinary (personal) WhatsApp app cannot use coexistence. Delete it from the app first, or connect a new line and keep the old one personal. Our coexistence explainer covers what syncs and what does not.

Step 2: prepare the Meta business portfolio

The business portfolio, formerly Business Manager, is the Meta Business Suite account that owns your WhatsApp Business account, ad accounts and Facebook Page. If the company already runs Instagram or Facebook ads, use that portfolio instead of opening a second one, and check that a director or owner has full control; only someone with full control can start verification.

A situation we see often: the portfolio was created years ago by an agency or a staff member who has left, on a personal profile. Ask them to give a director full control before you start, or create a new portfolio in the company's name. Verifying a portfolio that does not own the WhatsApp account does nothing for your messaging limit.

Step 3: connect the number through Embedded Signup

In your provider's panel, start the WhatsApp connection. On Broadchat that is Channels → All Channels, then connect WhatsApp (or the coexistence option if you are keeping the number on the app). Meta's window opens and asks you to:

1. Log in with Facebook and choose the business portfolio.
2. Create a WhatsApp Business account or select an existing one.
3. Enter the display name customers will see. It should match your brand and your website, for example 'Greenfield Diagnostics' rather than 'Customer Care'.
4. Enter the number in international format (+234 followed by the number without the leading 0) and confirm it with the code Meta sends by SMS or call.

When the window closes, the number appears in the panel with the status, quality rating and messaging limit Meta reports.

Step 4: verify the business with CAC documents

Business verification is how Meta confirms that the portfolio belongs to a real, registered business. Along with good message quality, it is one of the routes from the starting limit of 250 people a day to 2,000, and it lifts other caps such as how many numbers you can add. Start it in Meta Business Suite under Settings → Security Center → Start verification, and enter the legal name, address, phone number and website exactly as they appear on your documents.

Meta publishes the kinds of document it accepts, not Nigerian document names. Documents must show your legal business name, or your address or phone, must be current and must come from an official source. The table below is our general guidance on how common Nigerian documents line up with Meta's categories. It is not Meta's list, and Meta's reviewers make the decision.

Nigerian registration documents are in English, so translation is not needed. Scan them in colour, complete and unedited.

A worked example

Dr Ibrahim runs a diagnostic centre in Port Harcourt that patients know as Greenfield Diagnostics. The business is registered with CAC as Greenfield Health Services Nigeria Limited. He types that full name as the legal name, the street address exactly as on the CAC status report, the centre's landline and the website, whose footer reads 'Greenfield Diagnostics is operated by Greenfield Health Services Nigeria Limited'. He uploads the certificate of incorporation for the name and a recent PHED electricity bill in the company's name for the address. 'Greenfield Diagnostics' goes on WhatsApp as the display name, not into the verification form.

Confirm you represent the business

Meta then asks you to prove your link to the business: a code by email (an address on your own domain, such as admin@greenfielddiagnostics.com.ng, works better than a Gmail address), by phone, SMS or WhatsApp to the business number, or domain verification with a DNS TXT record or a meta tag on your website. Domain verification is often the easiest route when the phone on your documents is an old landline.

Meta says a decision can take up to 14 business days. Do not change the legal name, address, phone or website after you are verified, as a change means verifying again. Our global guide to Meta business verification lists the most common reasons for rejection.

Step 5: get your first templates approved

Outside the 24-hour window you can only send approved message templates. Start with one utility and one marketing template, in the language your customers read. If you also write to customers in Pidgin, Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo, create a separate template for each language rather than mixing them:

Utility (lender)
Hello {{1}}, your loan repayment of ₦{{2}} is due on {{3}}. Pay through the link below or to our account in your loan agreement. Reply HELP to speak to our team.

Utility (online store, pay on delivery)
Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} of ₦{{3}} is ready for delivery in {{4}} tomorrow. Tap Confirm to keep it or Cancel if you no longer want it.

Marketing (opted-in customers)
Hi {{1}}, our Christmas sale is on until Sunday: free delivery anywhere in Abuja on orders over ₦50,000. Reply STOP to opt out.

Keep promotion out of utility templates; Meta reviews the category and moves promotional content to marketing. Never ask for card PINs, BVN, passwords or full account numbers in any template. Review can take up to 24 hours.

Step 6: consent, NDPC registration and your first sends

WhatsApp's policy requires opt-in: the person agreed to receive messages from your named business. The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 adds its own expectations. Consent should be asked for specifically and separately, not hidden in a privacy notice; people may object to direct marketing at any time; and opt-out routes must be clear. Put a separate tick box on your checkout, loan application or admission form ('Send me order updates and offers on WhatsApp from Greenfield Diagnostics'), record the date and source in a tag or custom field, and act on 'STOP' straight away.

Check registration too. Under the Nigeria Data Protection Commission's implementation directive, organisations that process the personal data of more than 200 people within six months, or that work in sectors such as finance, health and telecoms, can count as data controllers of major importance and must register with the NDPC. This is general guidance, not legal advice; confirm your position with a Nigerian data protection adviser or the NDPC.

A new portfolio can message 250 unique people outside the 24-hour window in a rolling 24 hours. With good quality and steady use, Meta raises the messaging limit to 2,000, then 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited. Send utility messages first, keep marketing small and targeted, and watch the quality rating in the first two weeks.

After launch

• Add a WhatsApp chat link to your website, Instagram bio, receipts and delivery waybills; the WhatsApp link generator builds one.
• Run Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Instagram or Facebook: conversations they start are free for up to 7 days.
• For payments, put a link from your own Paystack or Flutterwave account, or your bank details, in the message, and send a receipt template once the payment is confirmed. Broadchat has no built-in Nigerian payment gateway.
• If you plan to sell WhatsApp to your own clients, see the white-label WhatsApp API for Nigeria.

Back to the overview: WhatsApp Business API in Nigeria.