A small team had a grand notion fifteen years ago: what if Africans could transmit and receive money instantaneously, across networks, countries, and currencies? Today, Onafriq is commemorating the resolution to that inquiry: a digital payment network that connects more than one billion purses and half a billion bank accounts throughout Africa.

From mobile money to omnichannel digital infrastructure, Onafriq’s voyage reflects Africa’s digitalization. Dare Okoudjou, the CEO who established the company from a solitary office in Lagos, reflected, “We began with interoperability. Today, we are facilitating financial inclusion and borderless enterprises. This expansion was not solely technical; it was also human.”

Onafriq is likely to have been used by a market woman in Accra or a boda-boda rider in Kampala without their knowledge.

The company discreetly powers the backend of commonplace transactions, including the payment of electricity, the receipt of cross-border wages, and the transmission of school fees, through API integrations and telecommunications partnerships.

Financial inclusion has been a popular term for a long time; however, for Onafriq consumers, it is a tangible experience.

Consider Aisha, a tailor from Kano who now sells to consumers in Ghana and receives payment instantaneously via her phone. “I never anticipated engaging in cross-border business,” she declares. “Currently, it is considered as ordinary.”

Onafriq is not easing down as it commemorates its anniversary. What is its subsequent frontier? Payment insights and SME lending tools that are AI-powered and designed with Africa’s unique circumstances in mind. It is not merely a celebration; it is a glimpse of the future of fintech, with Africa at the forefront.