How to create a Google Play developer account from Nigeria

You need a Google account and you must be at least 18. During sign-up you accept Google's developer agreement, pay the fee and choose an account type. Then you verify who you are.¹

Use a Google account you'll keep for years. The developer account is tied to it, and so is everything you publish. Plenty of people use an old Gmail from university that they barely check. Make a clean one, turn on two-step verification, and keep the recovery phone number on a SIM you won't lose.

Both kinds of account can publish apps and earn money on Google Play. A personal account is meant for students, hobbyists and people building on their own. An organisation account is for a business, and Google checks it with a D-U-N-S number.²

Some apps have to come from an organisation account whatever your size. That includes banking, loans, investing and crypto apps, health apps, VPN apps and government apps.² So if you're building a savings app or anything that touches people's money, you'll need the business route from the start.

For a single builder with a to-do app, a school portal or a small game, personal is usually right. Our guide to Google Play's 12 testers explains the closed test that new personal accounts have to run before publishing, so we won't repeat it here.

The fee is paid once, by card. Google takes Mastercard and Visa, plus Visa Electron outside the US. It doesn't take prepaid cards.¹

This is where many Nigerian builders get stuck. Some naira cards are blocked for foreign payments, or have a monthly limit that's already used up by Netflix and data subscriptions. Call your bank before you start and ask whether the card works for international online payments. A dollar card from your bank is another option, as long as it isn't prepaid.

Google may ask for a government ID and a card, both in your legal name. If it decides the details are invalid, it won't refund the fee.¹ For a personal account, the ID has to match exactly what's in your payments profile.³

Your legal name and address come from that profile. If your NIN slip says one spelling and your bank card says another, sort it out before you upload anything. A missing middle name is enough to cause a mismatch. You can fix the profile during the verification step if you notice a difference.³

Google then sends a six-digit code to your contact email, and another to your phone. The contact email isn't shown on Google Play.³ Google says you must finish verification before you can submit apps.³

New personal accounts also have to show they can use a real Android phone. Install the Play Console app, sign in with the same Google account and tap Verify. It has to be a real phone running Android 10 or later. Rooted phones don't count.⁴

Google says it takes under a minute. The phone's number isn't collected, so it doesn't need to match the number on your account. One phone can verify several developer accounts.⁴ If you build on a laptop and carry an iPhone, borrow a sibling's Android for five minutes.

If your app is free with no purchases inside it, you can skip this part for now. To sell the app itself or anything inside it, you need a payments profile linked to Play Console.⁵

Nigeria is on Google's list of places where developers can register as merchants, and its payout currency is listed as US dollars.⁶ The profile needs a real street address, not a PO box. Your bank account has to be in the same country as the profile, and you can't change the profile's country later.⁵ So set it up as Nigeria from the first day.

Google pays around the 15th of each month for the previous month's sales. Payouts sent by US dollar wire transfer have a minimum of US$100, so small earnings wait until they pass that amount.⁷ Wire transfers can take five to seven business days to arrive.⁸

Because the money comes in dollars, a domiciliary account is the easy way to receive it. Ask your bank for the SWIFT code and the exact account name before you enter them, and make sure that name matches the name on your profile.

On Prow: Posting your app on Prow is free, before or after it's on the store. Add your Google Play link to your project page and it shows up labelled as Google Play, so people can install the app straight from your page and leave feedback there.

• You've picked personal or organisation, and you know whether your kind of app needs an organisation account.
• Your bank has confirmed your card works for international payments, and it isn't prepaid.
• The name on your ID, card and payments profile is spelled the same everywhere.
• Your email, phone and Android device are verified.
• If you'll charge money, your payments profile is set to Nigeria with a real street address.
• Your domiciliary account details are ready for dollar payouts.