Onafriq, Africa’s largest payments network, has partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider Privy to modernise cross-border payments and settlement across the continent. The collaboration will integrate Privy’s digital asset infrastructure into Onafriq’s payment ecosystem, enabling the development of embedded stablecoin capabilities for businesses, financial institutions, and ecosystem partners.
What the Partnership Covers
The first phase will focus on cross-chain stablecoin transfers, treasury operations, and settlement workflows. These capabilities are meant to lay the groundwork for faster cross-border transactions and more efficient liquidity management across African markets, subject to regulatory approval in each jurisdiction.
Under the deal, Onafriq will integrate Privy’s embedded wallet technology into its network, allowing businesses to send, receive, and settle stablecoin transactions without needing to manage traditional crypto wallets or private keys directly. The infrastructure also supports multi-chain compatibility, which prevents Onafriq from being locked into a single blockchain network for settlement.
Addressing a Longstanding Bottleneck
Cross-border payments across Africa have long been slowed by fragmented financial systems, multiple intermediaries, and lengthy settlement cycles. Industry data cited in coverage of the deal indicates that over 80 percent of intra-African financial transactions currently route through correspondent banks in Europe or the United States before reaching their final destination on the continent. This routing process ties up liquidity, exposes merchants to foreign exchange volatility, and can delay settlements by several business days.
Stablecoins have increasingly emerged as a potential fix for these inefficiencies, offering faster fund movement and reduced settlement delays while freeing up working capital for businesses operating across borders.
Scale and Reach
Onafriq operates in 43 African markets and connects more than one billion mobile money wallets and 500 million bank accounts. Its existing services span cross-border collections and disbursements, card processing, agency banking, and treasury solutions, giving the Privy partnership a wide potential distribution base once regulated stablecoin services roll out.
Part of a Wider Industry Shift
The Onafriq-Privy deal fits into a broader pattern of global payment companies exploring blockchain-based settlement as an alternative to traditional correspondent banking networks like SWIFT. Visa recently partnered with Yellow Card Financial to enable stablecoin payments across 20 African countries, while Stripe completed a $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge earlier this year.
This growing interest reflects a shift among payment providers toward using stablecoins not just for consumer remittances, but for institutional treasury management, settlement processing, and cross-border liquidity solutions at scale.
What Comes Next
For now, the Onafriq-Privy partnership remains in its early phase, with cross-chain transfers and treasury workflows as the immediate focus. Broader cross-border payment and liquidity services are expected to follow, though their rollout will depend on regulatory clearance across the different African markets Onafriq serves.
If the partnership scales as planned, it could give African banks, fintechs, and mobile money operators a faster and cheaper alternative to the correspondent banking routes that have shaped cross-border payments on the continent for decades.
