Onafriq Partners Privy on Regulated Stablecoin Rails

In Short

• Onafriq is partnering with Privy to build regulated stablecoin infrastructure for businesses across Africa.
• The first focus is cross-chain stablecoin transfers and treasury and settlement workflows.
• Rollout will depend on where regulation allows stablecoin services.

What Happened

Onafriq said it has partnered with Privy to strengthen its digital asset stack and support stablecoin-enabled payment services for B2B customers across its network.

Onafriq is positioning the work as payment infrastructure, not a consumer crypto product. The initial phase will support cross-chain transfers, meaning stablecoins can move between different blockchains without users dealing with technical complexity. It will also target treasury and settlement workflows, which is the back-office plumbing businesses use to manage cash positions, fund accounts, and reconcile payments.

Privy provides wallet infrastructure, meaning the software layer that creates and secures digital wallets inside a product. In practice, this can let a payments company embed stablecoin wallets for partners and, later, institutional clients, subject to regulatory approval.

Onafriq said the partnership aims to reduce reliance on multiple intermediaries that slow cross-border settlement across African markets. It also said the work supports its wider strategy to modernise pan-African payment rails and build secure multi-modal wallets, which can hold different forms of value such as bank money, mobile money, and stablecoins.

Why It Matters

For African B2Bs, cross-border payments can take days and require several hops across banks, FX providers, and payment processors. Stablecoins, which are crypto tokens designed to track a stable asset like the US dollar, are often used to settle value faster than traditional correspondent banking.

If Onafriq can offer stablecoin settlement in a regulated way, it could improve speed and liquidity for banks, fintechs, and mobile money operators connected to its network. The key risk is compliance. Stablecoin use cases will likely ship market by market, depending on licensing, custody rules, and how regulators treat digital asset wallets.

The deal is another signal that stablecoin activity in Africa is moving from retail trading toward regulated infrastructure for payments and treasury operations.