Ripple Is Upset, Partnering With Onafriq To Accelerate Money Delivery In Africa

Ripple expands partnerships with Africa's leading payment company, Onafriq. (Photo; Doc. Coingape)

JAKARTA - Ripple, the leading blockchain payment company and XRP developer, has announced a partnership with one of Africa's leading mobile payment companies, Onafriq. This collaboration is aimed at improving remittance services and facilitating cross-border transactions in 27 countries on the African continent.

That way, this partnership is expected to accelerate the money transfer process efficiently and cost-effectively. In addition, this collaboration is also expected to strengthen financial inclusion and connectivity in the African financial landscape.

Ripple and Onafriq announced their partnership during Swell's annual conference, held in Dubai some time ago. Not only that, both sides agreed to expand payment services across Africa's coasts to several Gulf, UK and Australian countries.

To achieve this goal, Onafriq will use Ripple Payments, Ripple technology to make crypto-capable payments, to create three new connections for payments between Africa and other parts of the world.

According to a press release released on November 7, people using PayAngel in the UK, Pypl at GCC, and Zazi Transfer in Australia can now make fast and cost-effective business deliveries and payments to recipients in 27 countries across Pan-Africa Onafriq networks.

Aaron Spears, senior executive at Ripple, said that this connection will provide faster and more cost-effective cross-border payment benefits for individuals wishing to send money to Africa from various countries in the world.

"We are pleased to be working with Onafriq, who is a leader in mobile payments in Africa, to connect our partners PayAngel, Pyppl, and Zazi Transfer with their network via Ripple Payments. This will provide a better payment experience for senders and recipients of money in Africa," he said.

Dare Okoudjou, founder & CEO on Onafriq, said that partnerships with Ripple are the first step towards the company's crypto strategy, which involves facilitating payments in various digital assets for customers.

"We believe that blockchain technology has the potential to change the way payments inside, to, and from Africa. Our partnership with Ripple is a bold first step for our crypto strategy, which will allow us to offer payments in a wide range of digital assets for our customers," he said.

According to him, the company's mission is to make borders less important in terms of payments in Africa.

"We want to make cross-border payments easy and efficient for African people. We want to connect Africa with the world through our partnership with Ripple, which has allowed new types of connections with fintechs such as PayAngel, Pyppl, and Zazi Transfer," he said.

Onafriq, formerly known as MFS Africa until early November, changed the name of the company after acquiring Global Technology Partners, a US-based mobile payment software developer, in June 2022. The company explained that a name change was necessary because "MFS" is a registered trademark in the United States.

Onafriq has also finalized a deal with Western Union, focusing on facilitating cross-border transactions like Ripple. Currently, Onafriq has the widest network of remittances across Africa.

The company's payment center connects more than 500 million mobile wallets in 40 African countries. The company operates more than 1,300 payment routes on the continent, supports cross-border transactions without a hitch and promotes regional payment connectivity.