Getting started

This guide is an easy-to-read introduction on how clients can use the Customer Account Validation API to validate their customers’ bill payment account numbers.

Why use this API?

The Customer Account Validation API can be used by clients to validate a customer’s bill payment account number (e.g. DSTV Smart Card or electricity meter number) prior to submitting the bill payment purchase request to the vendor.

Participating parties

• Buyer/Customer 
• Clickatell
• Client
• Supplier
• Recipient

For definitions of each, see here.

Getting started with the Customer Account Validation API

To interface with Clickatell, the following needs to be set up, configured and tested:

Step 1: Integrate with Security Service API:

• Follow the instructions in the Security Service API quick-start guide to request a token with your client_secret and client_id
• Use the API_key and access_token in the following request (Step 2)

Step 2: Call Customer Account Verification API (this API)

• Add the API_key and access_token to the request header
• Use the client_id supplied during integration
• The following fields are required for the Customer Account Validation:
  • clientId
  • purchaseAmount
  • productId
  • targetIdentifier 

A high-level view of this interface is illustrated below:

For a list of all roles-players/stakeholders involved in the purchasing process, see here. 

Read more:

• Customer Account Validation API references
• Security Service API
• Getting started
• Overview