Onafriq expands regulated stablecoin settlement across Africa with USDC

Africa’s largest payments network is making a very deliberate bet that stablecoins can do what decades of traditional banking infrastructure have not: make it cheap and fast to move money across the continent.

Onafriq, the pan-African payments operator connecting roughly 1 billion mobile money wallets and 500 million bank accounts across more than 40 markets, is scaling its use of USDC as a settlement rail for cross-border transactions. The move builds on a strategic partnership with Circle, the issuer of USDC, first announced in Dubai on April 30, 2025.

The $5 billion problem

To understand why this matters, you need to understand how broken intra-African payments currently are. Over 80% of cross-border transactions on the continent get routed through offshore correspondent banks. That means a payment from Lagos to Nairobi might travel through London or New York before reaching its destination.

The result is roughly $5 billion in annual transaction fees, a staggering toll on commerce between African nations.

Onafriq’s approach positions USDC as a parallel settlement rail running alongside traditional fiat systems. Partners plugged into the network don’t need to rip out their existing infrastructure. Instead, they get an additional option that settles faster and costs less.

The network serves a wide range of financial players: banks, fintech companies, mobile money operators, and merchants.

From six months to six weeks

One of the more striking details comes from a Circle case study published on August 18, 2026. Onafriq originally estimated that rolling out USDC-powered settlements would take about six months. The actual timeline? Four to six weeks.

That acceleration came from Circle’s API and Mint capabilities, which allowed Onafriq to integrate stablecoin settlement without requiring major system overhauls from its network partners.

Onafriq holds multiple payment licenses across its markets and has emphasized regulatory compliance as a non-negotiable element of its stablecoin strategy.

CEO Dare Okoudjou has framed the initiative around simplifying transactions and enhancing financial inclusion.

Building the stablecoin stack

The Circle partnership is not Onafriq’s only move in this direction. In February 2026, the company partnered with Conduit, and in July 2026, it announced a collaboration with Privy to build regulated stablecoin infrastructure.