Ripple and Onafriq to facilitate cross-border payments in Africa

By Delisha Fernandes

Ripple, an enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions and payments FinTech Onafriq, previously MFS Africa, have partnered to facilitate digital asset-enabled cross-border payments between Africa and several new markets, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the UK and Australia.

Onafriq is utilising Ripple Payments, Ripple’s crypto-enabled payments technology, to open up three new payments corridors between Africa and the rest of the world. Customers of PayAngel in the UK, Pyypl in the GCC, and Zazi Transfer in Australia are now able to make speedy and cost-effective remittance and business payments to recipients in 27 countries across Onafriq’s pan-African network.

“For a number of years, Ripple has supported crypto-enabled, cross-border payments to individuals and businesses, and we are particularly excited to expand the reach of our solution into Africa thanks to our Onafriq partnership,” said Aaron Sears, SVP, Global Customer Success at Ripple. “Connecting our partners PayAngel, Pyppl and Zazi Transfer with Onafriq over Ripple Payments will bring the benefits of faster and more cost-effective cross-border payments to individuals seeking to send money into Africa from around the globe.”

Using Ripple’s crypto technology, Onafriq is eliminating the traditional problems associated with cross-border payments such as lengthy transfer times, unreliability and excessive cost. In this way the partnership is bringing faster, more efficient, and cost-effective international money transfers to Africa, and is set to accelerate financial inclusion across the continent.

Dare Okoudjou, Founder & CEO at Onafriq, said, “Our mission is to make borders matter less when it comes to payment within, to, and from Africa. We are advancing this mission through our partnership with Ripple, which is already enabling new types of connections with fintechs such as PayAngel, Pyppl and Zazi Transfer. These connections are set to enable fast, secure and low-cost remittances at scale between Africa and the rest of the world, and represent a bold first step for our crypto strategy to leverage blockchain technologies to amplify our impact on people and businesses on the continent.”