Flutterwave partners with Stellar to enable new Europe-Africa payment corridors

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), the foundation behind the native token of the Stellar Lumen network, XLM, just announced a partnership with Flutterwave, who will use the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin on the Stellar network to simplify remittances between Africa and Europe.

According to the announcement, “Flutterwave, a global payments technology company, has launched two new remittance corridors between Europe and Africa on the Stellar network.”

The announcement also mentioned that Flutterwave will work alongside Stellar’s principal EU payments partner, Paris-based money transfer operator, Tempo Payments. It stated, “working with TEMPO, Flutterwave is leveraging the Stellar network and Stellar USDC to simplify remittances in Africa.”

What they are Saying

Olugbenga Agboola, CEO at Flutterwave stated, “It is more expensive to send money to sub-Saharan Africa than to any other region in the world. Our new payment corridors on Stellar will allow us to continue expanding the Flutterwave network to bring all-important, cost-effective money transfer services to African business owners.”

TEMPO CEO, Suren Ayriyan had this to say: “We’re excited to partner with Flutterwave to extend our service ecosystem into Africa using Stellar rails. Customers across Europe will be able to send funds faster and at a lower cost to support their families and conduct business in Africa, landing funds right into their local bank account.

“We hope to continue working with Stellar anchors to exponentially increase our currency corridors and offerings, providing cheap, secure and fast global money transfers to all TEMPO customers, both existing and new.”

Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation stated, “This partnership marks a further step in our efforts to harness the power of technology to make financial services more inclusive and affordable for underbanked individuals worldwide.

“Flutterwave is doing important work in a region that has been historically underserved, and SDF is committed to helping them create a tangible impact on financial access and inclusion across the African continent and beyond.”

What You Should Know

Flutterwave claims to have processed more than 140 million transactions worth over $9 billion to date, serving over 290,000 businesses which including Uber, Booking.com, and Facebook. The firm already has the infrastructure in more than 33 African countries, including Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa.

The SDF has been targeting Africa for over a year, with the foundation teaming up with East African payments firm ClickPesa in November 2020. ClickPesa provides on and off-ramps to the banking systems of Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda.

Africa has become a key market for payment companies because much of the population remains unbanked. However, remittances fell during pandemic-induced lockdowns, with Africa.com recently reporting a 28% drop in remittances to Nigeria last year. This drop could also mean a shift from traditional payment services to cryptocurrencies which provide faster and cheaper cross border transactions.

Conclusion

In February, Stellar announced that it had integrated Circle’s USDC stablecoin. USD Coin has seen monumental growth in 2021, with its market cap surging 733% since the beginning of the year to tag $32.5 billion.

Stellar’s native token, XLM, is up 1.72% for the day, currently trading at 38.5 cents as of the time of writing this report. However, XLM is still down 58.90% from its January 2018 all-time high of 93.81 cents.

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