WhatsApp users can now save a contact’s username the same way they save a name and phone number, a small update that could offer real relief to Nigerian vendors who rely on the app to run their businesses.
The change adds a new username box to the “add contact” screen, placed between the name fields and the phone number entry. It expands on a username system WhatsApp began rolling out in July, which lets people chat using a chosen handle rather than sharing their phone number directly.
According to information by Tech blog, WABetaInfo, WhatsApp plans to eventually auto-fill the username field whenever a contact is saved from within a chat, once the feature is available to more users.
It’s a modest tweak on paper, but in Nigeria it lands on a genuine problem. WhatsApp Business has become the digital shopfront of choice for millions of Nigerian traders, from fashion sellers in Lagos to phone and gadget dealers in Kano and Aba. Because these sellers typically list their personal number for customers to reach them, that number becomes their single point of exposure, and increasingly, a target.
Nigerian digital security commentators have flagged a steady rise this year in WhatsApp account takeovers, fake vendor profiles and impersonation scams aimed at business owners. The Nigerian Communications Commission has repeatedly urged traders to treat their WhatsApp accounts as sensitive business infrastructure, recommending safeguards like two-step verification to block fraudsters who hijack accounts after tricking sellers into sharing verification codes.
Nigeria’s +234 dialing code has also become something of a red flag internationally, regularly cited in scam-tracking reports as a prefix associated with unsolicited WhatsApp messages asking for money or personal details, a reputation that has made some Nigerian sellers wary of publishing their numbers openly.
The introduction of a username option changes that calculus. Instead of a phone number, a vendor could hand out a handle, cutting down the number of people who can see, save or harvest their actual line. That alone won’t end WhatsApp fraud in Nigeria, but it removes one entry point scammers have relied on for years.
WhatsApp has not confirmed when the feature will be available to all users globally, and it remains in gradual rollout for now.
