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Overview

Virtual accounts can also serve as a means of accepting payment. It’s a unique account created for a single customer with an accountName and bank account number attached to them. This account can be used to receive transfer inflows from banks.
Virtual accounts are not a pocket of funds, as they only keep a record of transaction inflow to the owner for reconciliation purposes. All inflow is routed back to the business accounts.

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Fetch supported settlement banks

Novac has a list of supported banks you can pick from based on your preference when creating a virtual account.
Request
curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.novacpayment.com/api/v1/virtual-accounts/bank-list \
  --header 'Authorization: <secret-key>'
Response
{
    "status": true,
    "message": "Available Banks retrieved",
    "data": [
        {
            "bankCode": "000036",
            "bankName": "Optimus Bank"
        },
    ]
}

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Virtual account Types

When creating a virtual account, you must specify the account type via the accountType field. Novac supports two types of virtual accounts. This flow explain how funds received via a virtual accounts will be routed back to the merchant business account.

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Reserved or dedicated virtual account

To create a dedicated virtual account, set accountType to “reserved”. This type of account is ideal for receiving continuous inflows over time, perfect for use cases such as wallet systems, savings apps, or betting platforms, where each customer has a permanent account number assigned to them.
reserved accounts do not expire. When using "reserved" as the account type, set the amount field open. This indicates that the account can accept variable amounts rather than being tied to a fixed amount per transaction.

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Checkout

To create a temporary checkout account, set accountType to “checkout”. This type of account is used for one-time payments or time-limited checkout sessions. You can define how long the account remains active using the expiryInMinutes field.
By default "checkout" account expires in 20mins. However, you can extend this time by setting your preferred time.

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Create a virtual account

Novac allows merchants to generate virtual accounts for customers to receive payments seamlessly. When making the request, keep the following in mind:
  • amount – If supplied, the customer can only pay this exact amount per transaction.
  • expiryInMinutes – Defines how long the virtual account remains active before it expires.
Request
   curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.novacpayment.com/api/v1/virtual-account \
  --header 'Authorization: <secret-key>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "reference": "<string>",
    "amount": 123,
    "accountType": "<string>",
    "accountName": "<string>",
    "bankCode": "<string>",
    "firstName": "<string>",
    "lastName": "<string>",
    "customerEmail": "<string>",
    "expiryInMinutes": 123
  }'
Response
{
    "status": true,
    "message": "Virtual account generated",
    "data": {
        "accountNumber": "0830706484",
        "accountName": "Makanju Femi",
        "bankCode": "000000",
        "bankName": "Test NOVAC VA",
        "accountType": "reserved",
        "accountStatus": "active",
        "expiryInMinutes": 30,
        "reference": "1oVaJQQHLyQqqf1SwxjSpudeA069",
        "createdAt": "2025-10-06T22:46:48.5102348Z",
        "requestedAmount": 0,
        "expectedAmount": 0
    }
}
The response payload contains the requestedAmount as the original amount passed when you select checkout as your virtual account type. While the expectedAmount will be the original amount plus charges, as this is supposed to be a flash checkout account used for one-time payment.

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What next ?

You can retrieve details of a virtual account using any of the following endpoints: