Sender ID registration in Nigeria

What is a sender ID?

A sender ID is the label in the From field of an SMS. It is either a phone number or an alphanumeric string of up to 11 characters - typically a brand name such as GTBank or Sendozi. Recipients read it as identity, which is exactly why networks control who may use which name.

The SMS protocol does not authenticate the sender field. Anyone submitting traffic can technically claim any name, which is the mechanism behind most SMS impersonation fraud. Registration closes that gap administratively: the network keeps a record of which business owns which name, and refuses traffic that does not match.

Why registration is required

• It ties a visible identity to an accountable business, which is the basis of every anti-impersonation control in SMS.
• It gives networks a route to act when traffic is abusive: the name can be suspended rather than the whole aggregator.
• It is a prerequisite for the corporate route that carries transactional traffic to DND-active subscribers.
• It stops two unrelated businesses claiming the same brand name on the same network.

What you are usually asked for

Requirements are set by each network and change from time to time, so treat this as the shape of the request rather than a fixed checklist. Sendozi tells you what is outstanding for your specific submission.

The exact sender ID

Spelled and cased precisely as you want it to appear. A change after submission usually means a fresh request.

The business behind it

The registered name, and where applicable evidence such as a CAC registration document. A name that reads as a company invites a request for the company.

A description of the traffic

What you will actually send, and to whom. 'Transaction alerts to our own customers' is a reviewable statement; 'marketing' on its own is not.

Sample message content

One or two representative messages. Samples that do not match the traffic later are a reason for suspension.

Whether the traffic is transactional or promotional

The corporate route is scrutinised more closely because it reaches DND-active subscribers.

The workflow on Sendozi

1. 1

   Request the sender ID from the dashboard

   Enter the name, the use case and the networks you need it on.

2. 2

   Sendozi prepares and submits it

   The request is packaged for the registration partner and submitted to the networks. Missing information is raised with you before submission rather than after a rejection.

3. 3

   The networks review it

   This step is outside Sendozi's control. Timing varies by network and by how clean the request is; nobody can commit to a date on the networks' behalf.

4. 4

   Status appears in your dashboard

   Pending, approved or rejected, per network, with the reason where one is given. The API exposes the same status at GET /v1/sms/sender-ids.

5. 5

   Approved names become sendable

   A production send with an unapproved sender is refused with sender_id_not_approved rather than being silently rerouted.

Why sender IDs get rejected

What you can do before approval

• Test the full integration with a sandbox key. Sandbox runs the same validation without a provider or a charge.
• Import and clean the contact list, and normalise every number to +234 format.
• Build and preview templates, including the longest merge-field expansion.
• Register the delivery webhook and confirm your endpoint handles a test event.
• Fund the wallet so the first live send is not blocked on balance as well as on the sender ID.