Currency and Country Codes Reference

Overview

The Yala API uses standard ISO codes for currencies and countries:

Currency codes: ISO 4217 3-letter codes
Country codes: ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 3-letter codes

Common Currency Codes

Currency	Code	Example Countries
Nigerian Naira	`NGN`	Nigeria (NGA)
US Dollar	`USD`	United States (USA), Canada (CAN)
Chinese Yuan (RMB)	`CNY`	China (CHN)
Euro	`EUR`	Germany (DEU), France (FRA), Spain (ESP)
British Pound	`GBP`	United Kingdom (GBR)
Indian Rupee	`INR`	India (IND)
Ghanaian Cedi	`GHS`	Ghana (GHA)
South African Rand	`ZAR`	South Africa (ZAF)
Canadian Dollar	`CAD`	Canada (CAN)
West African CFA Franc	`XOF`	Senegal (SEN), Cote d’Ivoire (CIV)
Central African CFA Franc	`XAF`	Cameroon (CMR), Gabon (GAB)

Common Country Codes

Country	Code	Primary Currency
Nigeria	`NGA`	NGN
United States	`USA`	USD
China	`CHN`	CNY
United Kingdom	`GBR`	GBP
India	`IND`	INR
Ghana	`GHA`	GHS
South Africa	`ZAF`	ZAR
Canada	`CAN`	CAD
Germany	`DEU`	EUR
France	`FRA`	EUR

Discovering Valid Codes via API

Method 1: Use GET /pairs

The GET /pairs endpoint returns enabled currency pairs for your business. This shows which currencies are available:

curl https://gateway.staging.useyala.com/v1/payout-api/payouts/pairs \
  -H "x-api-key: <YOUR_API_KEY>"

Response includes baseCurrency and quoteCurrency codes.

Method 2: Use GET /methods

The GET /methods endpoint requires you to specify a corridor. If you’re unsure which codes to use, try common combinations:

# Example: Check NGN to CNY
curl "https://gateway.staging.useyala.com/v1/payout-api/payouts/methods?sourceCurrency=NGN&destinationCurrency=CNY&destinationCountryCode=CHN" \
  -H "x-api-key: <YOUR_API_KEY>"

If the corridor is not enabled or invalid, you’ll receive an error message indicating which parameter is incorrect.

Official ISO Standards

For complete reference lists:

ISO 4217 Currency Codes - Official list of all currency codes
ISO 3166-1 Country Codes - Official list of all country codes

Best Practices

Validate codes before API calls - Use the reference table above or ISO standards to ensure codes are correct
Use GET /pairs first - Check which currency pairs are enabled for your business before building your UI
Handle errors gracefully - Invalid currency or country codes will return 400 Bad Request with a clear error message
Cache enabled pairs - The list of enabled pairs doesn’t change frequently, so cache the response from GET /pairs

If you’re building a UI, call GET /pairs on page load to populate currency selection dropdowns with only enabled options.

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Concepts

Currency and Country Codes Reference

Overview

Common Currency Codes

Common Country Codes

Discovering Valid Codes via API

Method 1: Use GET /pairs

Method 2: Use GET /methods

Official ISO Standards

Best Practices

​Overview

​Common Currency Codes

​Common Country Codes

​Discovering Valid Codes via API

​Method 1: Use GET /pairs

​Method 2: Use GET /methods

​Official ISO Standards

​Best Practices

Overview

Common Currency Codes

Common Country Codes

Discovering Valid Codes via API

Method 1: Use GET /pairs

Method 2: Use GET /methods

Official ISO Standards

Best Practices