Ten companies making it easier for Africans to send and receive money internationally.
The rising number of Nigerians moving abroad, known as the ‘japa’ trend, highlights the growing demand for cross-border payments within Nigeria.
This demand arises for a variety of reasons, including parents sending money for their children’s education abroad and migrants supporting their families at home. Furthermore, Nigeria’s growing international trade, rising diaspora remittances, and global presence of Nigerian businesses all contribute to increased demand for efficient cross-border payment solutions.
Many businesses are recognizing the opportunities in this sector and responding to the demands.
Although efforts are being made to develop the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) for cross-border payments between African countries, cost and accessibility remain significant challenges. However, the emergence of fintech companies in this space is driving positive change. These innovative platforms not only save money but also streamline the cross-border payment process, making it faster and more accessible.
Several top platforms in Nigeria are now facilitating cross-border payments across Africa and around the world, responding to the growing demand for smooth financial transactions.
In this article, we discuss the issues with international payments, virtual dollar cards and how they solve them, and the companies that facilitate cross-border payments in Africa and around the world. Stay tuned…
Virtual Dollar Cards.
Virtual dollar cards are digital counterparts to physical cards, denominated in dollars, and tailored for online transactions exclusively. Unlike conventional debit or credit cards, they’re restricted to online use and facilitate payments in US dollars on any website through Visa or Mastercard
Benefits of Virtual Dollar Cards
1. Convenience.
Virtual dollar cards streamline online shopping by providing a straightforward and convenient experience. Unlike conventional payment methods, which require a physical card, virtual dollar cards operate solely through an app. This enables you to conduct transactions conveniently from home. Whether you’re making spontaneous purchases, virtual dollar cards offer you a hassle-free way to shop at any time and from anywhere.
2. Safety
Virtual dollar cards offer enhanced security for online transactions, standing out as a key feature. These cards safeguard against potential fraud and unauthorized access to your bank account. Their virtual nature eliminates the physical risks present with traditional cards, thereby decreasing the chances of card skimming or theft. Many virtual card providers employ advanced security measures like one-time-use card numbers and transaction limits, further fortifying your financial information. Utilizing virtual dollar cards enables Nigerians to mitigate the risks linked with online shopping.
3. Access
Virtual dollar cards unlock a plethora of opportunities for international online shopping. Certain platforms, like Alibaba, Amazon, and AliExpress, solely transact in US dollars. By utilizing a virtual dollar card, you can effortlessly make purchases from these sites, transcending geographical limitations and broadening your access to a diverse array of products. This global accessibility is a huge advantage for users who relish the international markets or capitalize on exclusive deals available on platforms geared towards a US-dollar audience. Acting as a gateway, the virtual dollar card empowers users to delve into the global marketplace without the restrictions of conventional payment methods.
4. Ease.
Virtual dollar cards boast user-friendly simplicity. Setting them up is straightforward, with most providers offering intuitive apps. Activating your card, adding funds, and monitoring purchases require just a few taps. Even for those who are not tech-savvy, navigating virtual dollar cards is hassle-free. Designed for stress-free usage, they ensure a seamless online shopping experience.
Ten companies making it easier for Africans to send and receive money internationally.
1. Blockroll
Blockroll is a platform that helps simplify your payroll processes, accept gig payments globally, and access a pool of talent across Africa.
Founded by Sadiq Isiaka, Stephen Adeyemo and Emmanuel Nwaka, Blockroll’s platform streamlines the payment process and reduces the risk of errors and unnecessary time consumption, making it an ideal solution for businesses around the globe.
With over 6 multinational partnerships and a massive user base, Blockroll makes it possible for businesses to make easy cross-border payments by leveraging its invoicing, batch payment, virtual card solution, and crypto remittance.
Specifics
- Ability to send and receive money internationally through the use of a fast and efficient platform.
- Virtual Dollar Cards for international payments
- Multi-currency wallet and the ability to save in both NGN, USD, and cryptocurrency.
- Easily create and securely send standard invoices to anyone, anywhere, using fiat or digital assets.
- Seamlessly convert between supported currencies at the best rates.
- Referral Program, where you earn redeemable points by referring your friends and family.
Virtual Dollar Cards
- $0 Maintenance Fee: You can make transactions with confidence, knowing there are no unnecessary monthly fees.
- Up to $100K Card Balance: You can have up to $100K in your card.
- $10K Single Transaction: You can spend as much as $10K at once with the Limitless Card.
- $3 Card Creation Fee: You can enjoy the premium benefits that come with the Limitless Card for as little as $3.
- 100% Card Uptime: The Limitless Card is available 24 hours a day and can be used globally.
- 24 Month Validity Period: With its extended lifespan, you can use the Limitless Card for as long as 24 months.
2. SwyftPay.
SwyftPay is a fintech solution that enables freelancers and small business owners to quickly and easily accept payments in foreign currencies and convert them to their local currency.
SwyftPay, founded by Clinton Oyelami, is a fintech company that provides fast and secure currency exchange services, allowing users to easily convert foreign currencies into their local currency. The platform also lets users create virtual USD cards and offers global payment options.
SwyftPay’s goal is to make financial transactions more accessible and efficient, especially for individuals and businesses conducting cross-border transactions.
Specifics
Swyft provides a fast, affordable, and secure payment solution that enables users to transact in local Nigerian Naira and receive money in USD, GBP, EUR, and digital currencies.
Their Visa and Mastercard dollar cards are widely accepted, meaning that you can easily create and start spending without boundaries
Simple FX rates for locals and foreigners.
Virtual Dollar Cards.
The card creation fee is $3, and the minimum funding is $1
3. Send by Flutterwave.
Flutterwave stands as a giant in the financial sector across Africa.
Flutterwave is an American fintech company that provides payment infrastructure to merchants and payment service providers all over the continent. Flutterwave, founded by Olugbenga Agboola and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, raised a $250 million Series D funding round at a valuation of more than $3 billion in 2022.
They announced the launch of Send by Flutterwave via a blog post in December 2021.
This platform allows you to send and receive money from loved ones in a convenient manner. This includes transfers to local bank accounts, mobile money wallets, and cash pickup locations.
Specifics.
The platform rests on four pillars: transparency because there are no hidden charges; speed because every transaction time matters; coverage because they leverage Flutterwave’s extensive user base; and convenience because of the password-less login on the web app to the range of payment platforms.
They cover Cameroon, Senegal, Côte D’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ethiopia; the United Kingdom; the United States, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy; the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta; and Spain
Virtual Dollar Cards.
At the time of this writing, Send doesn’t offer virtual dollar cards for international transactions.
4. Cleva Banking
Cleva Banking aspires to be the best banking platform for freelancers and remote workers around the world to effectively manage their finances.
Tolu Alabi and Philip Abel, the founders, have strong ties to the African market. They are from Nigeria and received scholarships to study in the United States. Abel attended MIT, and Alabi studied business at Stanford. Their extensive experience includes major tech giants such as Amazon, Stripe, AWS, and Twilio, which provides invaluable technical and product knowledge.
Currently, they have raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding for January 2024.
Specifics
As Tolu Alabi highlights, our platform differentiates itself from the competition in two key areas: customer experience and business model.
With 10+ years of experience working within the US banking system, the founders have a deep insight into how cross-border payments work and how to navigate through them. Also, it is affordable because you’ll never get charged more than $20 for any deposit you receive.
You can receive ACH, domestic wire from US banks, or international wire from non-US banks.
You can also receive payments from platforms such as Payoneer, Upwork, Deel, Fiverr, and Amazon
Virtual dollar Cards.
Currently, Cleva Banking offers virtual cards to the public.
The card creation fee is $3, of which $1 will be added to the card and available for use. The card funding fee is 1%, with a minimum of $1 and maximum of $5
The dispute fee is $50, and the international transaction fee is 3% of every transaction.
5. Geegpay by Raenest.
Geegpay is the digital finance platform for the gig economy.
Raenest, a Nigerian fintech startup, was founded by Richard Oyome, Sodruldeen Mustapha, and Victor Alade. They launched Geegpay in 2022 to provide a borderless payment infrastructure for African talent and businesses.
African talents can use Geegpay to open virtual bank accounts in USD, GBP, and EUR to receive faster payment for their services.
You can automate your employer billing with their smart invoicing and improve your credit score while using a Geegpay virtual card. Many Geegpay users have also linked their Geegpay USD bank account to popular platforms like Deel, Payoneer, Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, and People per Hour Remote.com, allowing them to easily receive and convert payments at competitive exchange rates.
Raenest has raised $420K in four rounds. Their latest funding round was for $0.15 million in June 2023.
Specifics
Geegpay makes it easy by connecting your Geegpay USD bank account to a variety of online platforms, including PayPal. This makes sending and receiving money easier.
You can access corporate and individual accounts through Geegpay by signing up on the platform and creating an account with their email addresses and passwords.
You can also automate your employer billing with smart invoicing and improve your credit score by spending with a Geegpay virtual card.
Geegpay can also be used to convert their USD, GBP, and EUR to local currencies such as the Nigerian Naira (NGN), Ghanaian Cedis (GHS), Kenyan Shilling (KES), Egyptian Pound (EGP), South African Rand (ZAR), and Rwandan Franc (RF).
Virtual Dollar Card.
Currently, Geegpay offers virtual cards for international transactions.
Card creation is $2–$3 based on preferences; you are charged $2 for a Visa and $3 for a Mastercard.
- For NGN
The fee is free; it is used only for Nigeria’s local transfers with an instant delivery time.
- For USD
It is 0.9% with a minimum of $1.5. It can only be used to receive payments from the US through AC or local wire transfer and takes 1 to 2 business days.
- For EUR
It is 0.7% with a minimum of Є1.5 and can only be used to receive payments from countries within the EEA region. It takes about 1 to 2 business days.
- For GBP
It is 0.7%, with a minimum of £1.5, and can only be used to receive payments from the UK.
6. LemFi
LemFi is the digital bank for Africans in the diaspora.
Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran founded the service, which was previously known as Lemonade Finance, to provide instant international transfers to the African diaspora community around the world. LemFi allows you to send money instantly from the UK, US, and Canada to Nigeria and Ghana.
The African diaspora has financial service needs that are either unmet or met inefficiently.
Some of these needs include high and hidden transfer fees for international remittances back home, as well as limited access to and management of affordable credit products domiciled in their home country. LemFi makes life easier for Africans abroad by providing borderless financial services that allow them to truly participate in the global economy, wherever they are in the world.
LemFi co-founder and CEO, Ridwan Olalere, helped build one of Flutterwave’s key payment products and once led Uber’s Nigeria business.
Cochran, on his part, had worked his way up in Opera Software AS from 2008 to 2020, rising to the position of Senior Finance Director as the company’s payment product, Opay grew in Nigeria. In August 2023, LemFi raised $33 million in Series A funding to simplify remittance payments for immigrants globally.
Specifics.
They offer zero-fee transfers to anyone, anywhere in the world.
You can receive and send money to friends with phone numbers via peer-to-peer payments.
They offer competitive rates and a multi-currency account for immigrants to hold, send, and receive money in both the currencies of their home country and that of their host country.
Virtual Dollar Card.
At the time of this writing, LemFi doesn’t offer virtual dollar cards.
7. Grey
Grey is promoting financial inclusion among modern workers.
Grey, founded by Idorenyin Obong and Joseph Femi Aghedo, enables remote workers and creators in developing economies to open a foreign bank account and begin receiving payments in their local currency without having to worry about exchange rates or transfer fees. They believe this will help empower more people and create opportunities for them to improve their lives.
Western companies can now recruit skilled workers from anywhere in the world, and Grey makes it simple for these workers to receive their salaries, save in foreign currency, convert to local currency, and spend.
In August 2022, Grey raised $2 million seed funding from Alan Rutledge and 7 other investors
Specifics.
A platform that provides digital foreign accounts for digital nomads, remote workers, and freelancers, allowing individuals and businesses to receive money from abroad instantly.
It enables customers to swap currencies, receive payments immediately at the best rates, spend with a virtual USD card, and send invoices.
They also relieve stress associated with cross-border payments and foreign exchange.
Virtual Dollar Cards.
The virtual dollar card from Grey comes with a zero maintenance fee, an expense tracker to view your balances, and a swift and easy payment method.
Currently, the swap fee is 1% (capped at $6) of the currency you are converting from for any transaction type or currency pair. For USD and GBP, it is 1% per transaction, and for withdrawals of GBP, it is 0.5% with a minimum of £5.
Grey has a lot of documents stating their fees, so it’s best to read about them in depth.
8. Chipper Cash
Chipper Cash is a fintech platform that facilitates cross-border money transfers.
Chipper Cash, launched in 2018, introduced fee-free transfers for personal payments, making it easier to send and receive money across borders and promoting financial inclusion across the continent.
Founders Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled created a simple way for customers in five African countries — the United States and the United Kingdom — to pay bills, make cross-border money transfers, and purchase bitcoin.
According to CBS Insights, Chipper Cash has raised $341.58 million in 12 rounds, bringing its valuation to $2.2 billion. Chippercash has established itself in Africa, with over 5 million users and 100,000 daily transactions.
They are currently operating in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, and the United States.
Specifics
Users can enjoy free transfers and one of the lowest cross-border rates. They can also securely link any mobile money or bank account and withdraw cash for free.
The Chipper card, a virtual card, allows customers to access their money in a variety of ways.
Chipper Cash now offers ten different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, Avax, Matic, Solana, and Doge. They also allow you to easily convert cash to cryptocurrency and vice versa.
Additionally, they provide a simple way to purchase fractional stock shares for as little as $1 in Naira and UGX.
Furthermore, Chipper Cash is currently partnered with an Italian football club, Roma FC, and is developing Chippercash as the club’s official money transfer platform for Africa.
Virtual Dollar Cards
Chipper Cash currently has a fee, depending on where you are located.
For Nigerians, the card creation fee is $3, and there is a monthly maintenance fee of $1 (which is charged to your card balance on the 28th of each month).
A 1% fee applies to all original credit transactions, which are transactions in which customers receive funds from external sources and add them to their card balance, such as Visa Direct transactions.
9. Eversend
Eversend is a mobile-only banking service aimed at the African market and its diaspora around the globe.
Founded by Ugandan-born Stone Atwine, the company provides a platform that allows users to send, receive, and create virtual US Dollar cards. It provides intra-Africa cross-border and in-country money transfers, as well as transfers from Africa to the rest of the world, and leverages a multi-currency e-wallet to provide other financial services like personal loans, travel insurance, and access to cryptocurrency.
According to CBS Insights, Eversend has raised $1.35 million over 8 rounds.
Specifics.
Send and receive money from friends and family at affordable rates.
Hold and exchange multiple currencies at fair and transparent exchange rates. We are constantly adding new currencies.
Chat with the customer service team using our in-app messaging platform for quick resolution of issues, questions, and comments.
Physical security ensures that servers are secure and privacy is maintained.
Virtual Dollar Cards
Currently, Eversend charges based on your location.
In Nigeria, card issuing is free, while the monthly fee is $1.
The virtual cards are denominated in United States dollars (USD). Transactions made outside of the United States will incur a foreign exchange fee of 3.5% and a charge of USD 0.5. per transaction.
For every payment instruction initiated with an insufficient balance, they impose a penalty levy of $0.5 and reserve the right to revoke access to services if you initiate a certain number of payment instructions without sufficient balance(s).
10. ALAT by Wema Bank
ALAT was introduced in May 2017 by Wema Bank Plc.
During its first year, ALAT by Wema acquired more than 250,000 customers responsible for well over $4.48 million in general deposits. It’s a fully established digital bank in Nigeria that makes payments easy for everyone.
ALAT eliminates the need to visit a bank before opening an account or arranging payments between parties.
Specifics
ALAT is Nigeria’s first fully digital bank, providing personalized banking solutions while also supporting your lifestyle choices, business needs, and recreational activities.
ALAT provides a 360-degree digital banking experience that is simple, dependable, and convenient. Our technology encourages you to manage your money differently while also allowing you to bank on the go from anywhere.
Virtual Dollar Cards.
The virtual dollar card works efficiently and effectively across all devices, applications and programs
Obtaining an ALAT card is simple, but it requires some important information.
With an ALAT virtual dollar card, you can easily make payments on Uber, Netflix, Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music, Asos, Udemy, Coursera, AliExpress, Google, Facebook, and other sites. You will also be charged a monthly card maintenance fee of 525 naira for each card created after your initial virtual card.
Conclusion
Sending money across borders can be difficult due to security concerns, transfer fees, transaction speed, and currency fluctuations. However, these issues are addressed by choosing the right service provider.
For individuals and businesses looking for efficient inter-African cross-border payment solutions, Blockroll is an excellent choice. Blockroll, with its convenient, transparent, modern, and straightforward approach, enables seamless money remittance in local currencies across African nations.
Aside from the foregoing, international platforms such as WorldRemit, PayPal, and Payoneer provide cross-border payment services to Africans. However, their services are subject to certain restrictions. For example, personal Nigerian PayPal accounts can send but not receive payments. WorldRemit does the opposite, allowing Nigerians to receive from other countries while prohibiting them from sending. Blockroll offers a mix of both worlds.
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