Nigeria: Kora brings stablecoin payments and settlement to pan-African network

Nigerian-founded fintech Kora has launched One Rail, a new product that integrates stablecoin payments and settlement capabilities into its existing payment infrastructure for businesses operating across African markets.

The product enables eligible merchants in supported markets to accept dollar-backed stablecoins, including USDT and USDC, convert between supported assets and settle funds into bank accounts, mobile wallets or stablecoin wallets through Kora’s existing payment rails.

Kora said the rollout is being phased, with available features depending on the market and payment infrastructure connected to each merchant.

Kora adds stablecoins to existing payment infrastructure

One Rail brings stablecoin settlement into Kora’s existing payment network, allowing businesses to use digital dollars without having to manage the underlying blockchain infrastructure themselves.

The fintech wants stablecoin payments to function like other payment methods, removing the need for merchants to manage individual wallets, blockchain infrastructure or separate reconciliation systems.

For payment infrastructure providers, stablecoins can offer another mechanism for moving dollar-denominated value across markets. Where businesses can convert stablecoin balances into local currencies when required, the model could also reduce the working capital tied up in prefunded accounts.

However, the potential savings depend on factors including access to local liquidity, foreign exchange (FX) conversion costs and the availability of payout services in each market.

Dickson Nsofor, Kora’s founder and chief executive officer, said traditional cross-border payments can involve multiple correspondent banking stages before funds reach their destination.

“If you go into your bank in Nigeria to do a wire to, say, China, it’s going to take you at least three days—the money goes from Nigeria to New York, from New York to Hong Kong, then from Hong Kong to mainland China,” Nsofor said.

He said a comparable stablecoin transaction could settle in less than two minutes at a lower cost, although the overall speed and cost of a cross-border payment still depend on factors beyond blockchain settlement.

Stablecoins target cross-border payment frictions

Stablecoins can move between compatible blockchain wallets within minutes, but a complete cross-border payment involves more than transferring digital assets.

Businesses still need to manage fiat conversion, FX transactions, compliance checks and local payout infrastructure. These factors can determine how quickly and efficiently a stablecoin-based payment ultimately reaches its recipient.

The technology is nevertheless attracting growing attention as payment providers look for ways to address the cost and liquidity challenges associated with cross-border transactions.

Nigeria has accounted for roughly 60% of stablecoin inflows into Sub-Saharan Africa since 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund. Dollar-backed stablecoins also dominate the market, with around 99% of stablecoin market value denominated in US dollars.

For African businesses operating across multiple markets, access to digital dollars could provide another mechanism for holding and moving value where local currencies and FX liquidity are fragmented.

Reducing reliance on prefunded accounts

Cross-border payment providers commonly maintain local-currency balances in different countries so they can process payouts when customers initiate transactions.

While this allows payments to be completed quickly, it also ties up capital until those balances are used. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has previously identified funding costs and liquidity management as important challenges in multicurrency cross-border payments.

Kora sees stablecoins as a potential way to change this model.

“Prefunding is still [a] fundamental way companies do business today,” Nsofor said. “That does not negate the fact that stablecoins will, in the future, be the best way to avoid prefunding altogether; you just hold a stablecoin, and based on the payment need, you convert. That’s where the whole world is tending.”

The approach does not, however, eliminate the need for local-currency liquidity.

A payment provider still needs access to currencies such as the Tanzanian shilling or Kenyan shilling when a recipient needs to be paid. That liquidity can come from the provider’s own balance sheet, an FX provider, a bank or a local payout partner.

Kora currently prefunds markets where local liquidity is limited. Tanzania, where the company launched in April, is one example.

According to Nsofor, stablecoins could eventually allow Kora to maintain more liquidity in digital currencies and convert those balances into local currency when payments are required, potentially reducing the amount of capital held separately across individual markets.

African fintechs explore stablecoin settlement

Kora’s move comes as other African payment and remittance companies explore stablecoins as part of their cross-border infrastructure.

Tanzanian-founded remittance fintech NALA, for example, has been developing stablecoin payment infrastructure aimed at supporting faster settlement and reducing FX-related costs. The company also secured up to $50 million in debt funding in May to support transfer prefunding, expand payment corridors and serve larger enterprise customers.

The developments reflect a broader shift among fintech infrastructure providers towards using digital assets alongside conventional banking and payment rails.

Stablecoins can provide a digital representation of dollar value, but their effectiveness for commercial payments ultimately depends on the ability to convert those assets into local currencies and connect them to regulated payment infrastructure.

Stablecoin use remains small in global payments

Despite the growing interest, stablecoins remain a relatively small component of global commercial payments compared with traditional payment systems.

Pablo Hernández de Cos, general manager of the BIS, estimated in April 2026 that stablecoins accounted for about $390 billion in real-economy payments globally during 2025.

That remains a small share of the estimated $200 trillion in annual global cross-border payments, according to research presented at the 2026 BIS Annual Conference.

The figures highlight both the potential and current limitations of stablecoins as a mainstream payment mechanism. Their ability to provide near-instant digital settlement does not by itself address liquidity, FX, compliance or local payout requirements.

The BIS is also exploring other forms of digital settlement infrastructure. Its Project Agorá is testing whether tokenised central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits could improve multicurrency settlement, reflecting wider interest in using digital representations of financial assets for cross-border transactions.

Kora expands digital-dollar access across Africa

Kora currently operates in more than eight African markets, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Tanzania.

For merchants, One Rail adds stablecoin wallets to Kora’s existing payment infrastructure. Businesses can receive USDT or USDC, monitor and reconcile transactions through Kora’s dashboard, maintain balances in digital dollars or convert supported assets into local currencies for settlement into bank accounts.

The product positions stablecoins as an additional settlement layer within Kora’s broader payment infrastructure rather than as a standalone blockchain service.

“Cross-border commerce in Africa is hindered by high friction and remittance costs,” Nsofor said. “One Rail levels the playing field, enabling merchants to integrate stablecoin payments into their existing payment stack, delivering the speed, cost efficiency, and access needed to drive business growth across the continent.”

As stablecoin adoption develops across African markets, the ability of payment providers to combine digital-dollar liquidity with local banking, FX and payout networks will remain central to determining how widely the technology can be used for everyday commercial transactions.