Onafriq Partners With Privy to Build Regulated Stablecoin Infrastructure for B2B Payments Across Africa

Onafriq, Africa's largest payments network, has announced a partnership with Privy, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, to develop B2B payment services backed by stable digital currencies across its continental network, according to Capital FM. This tie-up comes as stablecoins - digital tokens pegged to hard currencies such as the US dollar - gain traction in Africa as an alternative to slow and costly correspondent banking channels for cross-border business payments. Onafriq, formerly known as MFS Africa, connects mobile money, banks and payment platforms across numerous African countries. The source provides no financial figures, rollout timeline, or named executive statements from either company - only the general goal of "strengthening digital asset infrastructure" and building "regulated" stablecoin-enabled payment services is mentioned. For African businesses, the stakes are reduced cross-border settlement times and costs, amid chronic hard-currency scarcity in several markets. For regulators, the emphasis on "regulated" infrastructure suggests an intent toward compliance, even as crypto-asset regulation remains uneven across countries (Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa). This announcement fits into a broader trend of growing stablecoin use by African fintechs facing local currency volatility. It remains to be seen how far the announced deployment actually goes and how widely it is adopted.