Designed to enable businesses collect funds in naira or stablecoins and send payouts to the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, the new system handles foreign exchange conversion instantly and locks in rates at the point of transaction.

For years, operators in this space have had to manage cash on two fronts. They collect in naira, then look for foreign currency elsewhere, while also keeping reserves ready for payouts. That process ties down capital and slows transactions.

Nomba says its new API removes that limitation by merging collection, conversion and disbursement into one flow. Once funds enter the system, either in naira or stablecoins such as USDT or USDC, conversion happens immediately and the payout begins without delay.

“Running a cross-border payments business from Nigeria has meant managing frozen liquidity on two fronts at the same time,” said Yinka Adewale, CEO, Nomba.

“Operators collect naira, then go source foreign currency, all while their customers are waiting. We built this API to collapse that operational complexity into a single transaction flow, and to give operators who want to remove naira exposure entirely the option to fund in stablecoins.”

Outlining how the payout routes work, the company noted that transfers to the UK go through Faster Payments, with settlement taking between one and three hours.

In Europe, SEPA transfers are completed in under one hour, while Canada supports Interac for instant transfers alongside bank payments. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, users can send money through mobile money or bank transfers, both processed instantly. Nigeria, meanwhile, is the base corridor.

Another feature is a five-minute exchange rate lock. This ensures the rate a customer sees at the start of a transaction stays the same at settlement, reducing disputes and unexpected losses.

The launch comes at a time when cross-border payments in Africa are expensive. On average, sending $200 costs about 7.9%, one of the highest rates globally. At the same time, stablecoins are gaining ground.

They now account for a large share of crypto transactions in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria alone handling billions of dollars in volume over the past year.

On the regulatory aspect, Nigeria’s tax policies treat foreign exchange conversions, service fees and digital charges as taxable events since the start of 2026. This is forcing payment companies to build systems that can handle compliance automatically.

Nomba, which started in 2016 as Kudi, has moved from agency banking into payment infrastructure. In 2025, it processed N122 billion across 1.85 million transactions. Its virtual accounts now account for most of its API activity.

With the new Global Payout API, Nomba is targeting a long-standing problem in the market, cutting out the need to hold funds in multiple currencies at once. The company is ensuring payment firms can move faster and operate with less capital tied up.

While it may be Africa’s largest economy (valued at US$500 billion) and the most populous nation on the continent, Nigeria’s business sector remains largely informal. Last year, the country’s informal business sector accounted for around 65% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

What’s more, around half of Nigeria’s 41 million Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) still solely rely on cash payments – even though digital payments are faster, more reliable and affordable, while decreasing potential risk. 

Digitising Nigeria’s – and indeed Africa’s – economy still has a long way to go, especially in rural areas where the country’s underbanked and unbanked mostly reside and operate. 

Africa’s growing internet penetration makes it well-equipped to harness the power of instant point of sale (POS) transactions, while solving real, everyday problems. And the maturation of exponential technologies and their decreasing cost is helping to democratise the business sector while promoting financial inclusion. In this way, FinTechs across the continent are the gateway into the digital economy.

Across the continent, there are on average five bank branches per 100 000 people, in comparison to 13 elsewhere in the world, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Yet a single mobile money agent has seven times the reach of an ATM, and 20 times the reach of a brick-and-mortar bank. 

FinTechs help to leapfrog incumbent ways of banking and doing business, while enabling entrepreneurs to optimise their operations seamlessly and affordably. Much like the other 140-odd FinTechs in Nigeria at last count in 2021, our driving passion at Nomba is to create omnichannel payment solutions that welcome everyone to the digital economy of the future – regardless of their tech adoption or digital literacy.

One of the reasons we founded Nomba (formerly known as Kudi) in 2017 was to democratise access to banking products and services for every Nigerian, while helping to alleviate long queues for simple banking procedures, such as cash withdrawals, deposits and transfers, as well as bill payments and wallet top-ups. 

Through its POS technology, Nomba partners with traditional banks and licensed financial institutions to offer entrepreneurs a unified platform to seamlessly manage their business across multiple touch-points and locations. Nomba’s full-service integrated terminal and dashboard are designed to manage omnichannel payments, whether in cash, cards, transfers, USSD or QR codes.

Today, our fast-growing network of over 150 000 merchants (mobile money agents) process over US$6 billion in payments annually. Our research has found that 20 million Nigerian retailers – whether they be in the formal or informal business sector – are already equipped to process POS transactions. The virtue is that, unlike traditional banking, they can onboard themselves within a matter of minutes via the website or smartphone application without the need for a middle man. 

As developing economies are dusting themselves off after the economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, imagine the potential this has to empower individuals and businesses by providing them instant liquidity and access to their money – anytime and anywhere. 

This kind of one-stop-shop for financial services and easy-to-use, business-growth tools have the potential to create positive socio-economic impact and spearhead the continent into the Fourth Industrial Revolution without the need to rely too heavily on traditional financial services providers.

There are, without a doubt, various challenges that have already – and still will – come to the fore. A non-exhaustive list includes the need for funding, infrastructure development, and stable telecommunication connections to increase the speed and reliability of payments – all of which cultivate consumer trust. 

However, this is the first step in the race towards paving the way for online payments to become the preferred form of payment by 2030.

Our end game is to enable Africans to become digital natives so as to overcome the digital divide. And with this will come a growth in intra-African trade, cross-border transfers, the development of technological infrastructure and the strengthening of local and regional regulatory policies. And to think that all of these goals can fit into your pocket.