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Paga, one of Africa’s longest-standing fintech companies, is strengthening its wealth management ambitions through a new partnership with blockchain infrastructure startup TBook, enabling users to access tokenised real-world asset (RWA) investments.
The collaboration integrates Paga’s payment and compliance infrastructure with TBook’s marketplace for tokenised assets built on the Sui blockchain. Through this integration, customers and businesses will gain access to investment products spanning fixed-income instruments and tokenised private assets.
The partnership marks another step in Paga’s infrastructure-led growth strategy. Through Paga Engine, its payments infrastructure business, the company can now support the distribution of tokenised investment products alongside its existing financial services, reinforcing its position as a backend provider powering financial products for other businesses, not just end users.
“My desire is to see Africans participate fully in global commerce and grow their wealth,” said Tayo Oviosu, Group Chief Executive Officer of Paga. “This partnership gives everyday Africans access to investment-grade opportunities that have historically been out of reach. Businesses building on Paga Engine can also offer these products within their own applications, significantly extending market reach.”
The move builds on Paga’s broader blockchain strategy. At the Sui Live event in Miami earlier this year, Oviosu revealed plans to introduce more crypto-enabled, yield-bearing investment products tailored to African consumers. Paga had also partnered with Sui to enable users earn yield on Sui Dollar, a US dollar-pegged stablecoin.
This is not Paga’s first venture into investment products. In 2020, the company partnered with Wealth.ng to provide users access to investment opportunities across agriculture, real estate, and fixed-income assets. However, the latest partnership signals a more deliberate move into on-chain finance.
Tokenised assets convert ownership of traditional financial instruments into digital tokens tradable on blockchain networks. This model allows retail investors to gain fractional exposure to assets such as commercial real estate, private credit, or government securities without the high entry barriers associated with traditional investing.
Interest in tokenised assets has surged globally. The market has expanded rapidly as financial institutions explore blockchain-based alternatives to conventional investments, driven by the promise of improved liquidity, broader access, and faster settlement.
Despite the opportunities, tokenisation does not eliminate the risks tied to underlying assets. For example, tokenised real estate still depends on legal ownership structures, transparent valuation, secure custody, and effective regulatory oversight in the relevant jurisdictions.
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in New York City, TBook provides infrastructure that enables fintech companies to embed tokenised investment products into their existing applications without building blockchain rails from scratch. The platform connects regulated asset issuers with fintechs seeking to offer investment products to users while also enabling businesses to generate yield from customer balances.
This model is increasingly attractive to deposit-focused fintechs seeking new revenue streams beyond transaction fees, offering an opportunity to monetise idle balances while helping users earn investment returns.
“Every consumer fintech is sitting on idle balances that earn little for both the customer and the business, especially in emerging markets,” said Nick Young. “TBook’s partnership with Paga unlocks fully regulated, institutional-grade assets for millions of users through a single integration. This is what financial inclusion looks like at scale.”
Paga’s entry into tokenised investments places it within a growing wave of StableFi infrastructure providers building plug-and-play solutions for fintechs. Companies such as Blend, OpenTrade, and Stable are also developing infrastructure that enables embedded yield-bearing products tied to assets such as stablecoins, real estate, and commodities.
The partnership could further expand distribution through the more than 300 businesses already using Paga Engine, allowing those companies to integrate tokenised investment products directly into their own applications.
Paga has continued to broaden its blockchain footprint. In recent months, the company partnered with Crossmint to enable multi-chain settlement for cross-border payments, following earlier collaborations with Sui. These developments suggest the fintech is steadily building blockchain infrastructure across payments, savings, and investments.
Under the partnership, Paga said tokenised investment products will only be distributed through entities regulated within the jurisdictions where it operates, including Nigeria and potentially Ethiopia.
The long-term success of the initiative will depend on consumer adoption of tokenised investments across Africa and how regulators across the continent shape policies around blockchain-based financial products.
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