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Overview

E-commerce platforms need a payment experience that is fast, familiar, and resilient. Customers expect to pay by card, bank transfer, or USSD without friction, and merchants need real-time confirmation of payment before fulfilling orders. Novac covers all of this, from initiating a checkout session and presenting a payment UI, to verifying the result server-side and issuing refunds when needed.

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How It Works

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Prerequisites

See details

  • Create an account with completed KYC
  • Obtain your API keys Public key for checkout, Secret key for verification and refunds
  • A publicly accessible callbackURL where Novac will redirect customers after payment
  • A webhookURL registered in your Novac dashboard for server-to-server event notifications

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Create a Checkout Payment

When a customer clicks “Pay”, your server initiates a checkout payment with Novac. This returns a checkoutUrl to redirect the customer and a transactionReference to track the payment.
Use Novac’s hosted checkout page to complete payment, all payment methods included based on your preference settings.
Request
curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.novacpayment.com/api/v1/checkout \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <your-public-key>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "amount": 25000,
    "currency": "NGN",
    "email": "customer@example.com",
    "reference": "ORDER-00123",
    "callbackUrl": "https://yourstore.com/payment/callback",
    "redirectUrl": "https://yourstore.com/order/confirm"
  }'
Redirect the customer to the checkoutUrl returned in the response.Full guide > Prebuilt Checkout

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Handle the Callback

After payment, Novac redirects the customer back to your callbackURL with query parameters: 
GET {your-callback-url}?reference=<string>&status=<string>
Never trust the status parameter in the callback URL alone. Always verify the transaction server-side before fulfilling an order.

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Verify the Transaction

Make a server-side GET request to confirm the actual payment status from Novac’s API.
Request
curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.novacpayment.com/api/v1/checkout/ORDER-00123/verify \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <your-secret-key>'
Response
{
  "status": true,
  "message": "Transaction details retrieved successfully",
  "data": {
    "status": "successful",
    "transactionReference": "ORDER-00123",
    "amount": 25000,
    "chargedAmount": 25000,
    "currency": "NGN",
    "channel": "card",
    "customer": {
      "email": "customer@example.com",
      "name": "Ada Obi"
    }
  }
}
Only fulfill the order when data.status is "successful". Full guide → Verify a Transaction

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Listen for Webhooks

In addition to the callback, configure a webhook so your server receives real-time event notifications — even if the customer closes the browser before being redirected.
Webhook Payload (example)
{
  "notify": "transaction",
  "notifyType": "successful",
  "data": {
    "transactionReference": "ORDER-00123",
    "amount": 25000,
    "status": "successful",
    "currency": "NGN",
    "customer": {
      "email": "customer@example.com",
      "name": "Ada Obi"
    }
  }
}
Always verify the transaction via the API after receiving a webhook. Do not rely solely on the webhook payload for order fulfilment.
Full guide → Webhooks

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Handle Refunds

If a customer requests a refund, use Novac’s Refund API. You can issue a full or partial refund.
Full Refund
curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.novacpayment.com/api/v1/refund \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <your-secret-key>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "reference": "ORDER-00123"
  }'
Full guide → Refund a Transaction

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What’s Next?