The Stellar Development Foundation SDF, the non-profit supporting the Stellar network, announced yesterday that Flutterwave, a global payments technology company, has launched two new remittance corridors between Europe and Africa on the Stellar network.
Flutterwave would leverage the Stellar network and Stellar-based USD coin to simplify remittances in Africa. Remittances are currently a multi-billion-dollar market in the continent, and crypto usage could just account for a piece of that pie.
Opening these new corridors will greatly benefit businesses focused on building more efficient, cost-effective remittance services, contributing to a stronger, more inclusive Pan-African digital payments infrastructure.
As such, Flutterwave plans to expand Stellar-based capabilities to additional African countries as it continues to grow the number of currencies it supports.
It is more expensive to send money to sub-Saharan Africa than any other region in the world, said Olugbenga Agboola, CEO of Flutterwave. 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. Connecting Stellar-based businesses like Flutterwave and TEMPO — which also has a significant, complementary user base in Africa — creates an efficient and affordable pan-African payment infrastructure supporting the Stellar Development Foundation's mission to create equitable access to the global financial system.
With these payment rails in place, Stellar continues to establish itself as a viable alternative to traditional long and expensive digital methods for sending remittances.
Flutterwave is doing important work in a region historically underserved, and SDF is committed to helping them create a tangible impact on financial access and inclusion across the African continent and beyond, said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of Stellar Development Foundation.
She added: This partnership marks a further step in our efforts to harness the power of technology to make financial services more affordable and inclusive for underbanked individuals worldwide. Stellar is a decentralized and scalable cryptocurrency for financial products and services. Financial institutions worldwide issue assets and settle payments on the Stellar network, which has grown to over 5 million accounts as per data provided by CryptoSlate.