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Nomba Chief Executive Officer Yinka Adewale is betting that owning a regulated payment infrastructure abroad is the fastest way to fix one of Africa's longest-running trade problems. Getting paid across borders quickly and predictably.
The Nigerian fintech has acquired a licensed Canadian payment service provider and money services business, giving it regulatory coverage to operate locally within Canada and connect Canadian dollar flows directly to African markets. The acquisition was completed in the second quarter of twenty twenty five, though the company declined to disclose the name or valuation of the firm.
Nomba said it plans to invest up to two million dollars into the acquired company to strengthen infrastructure and scale operations. The focus of the new setup is business-to-business payments rather than consumer remittances, a deliberate shift aimed at exporters, importers, professional services firms and multinational suppliers trading between Africa and North America.
Adewale said much of the existing infrastructure supporting African cross-border trade was never designed for speed or transparency. Payments often move through multiple correspondent banks, creating delays, higher costs and limited visibility for businesses.
Owning regulated infrastructure allows the company to remove layers of complexity and offer predictable rails businesses can rely on, Adewale said. He added that while consumer remittances have improved over the years, cross-border trade payments remain largely unresolved.
The Canadian licence allows Nomba to offer African businesses local Canadian dollar accounts held within Canada, direct settlement into naira and other African currencies, near real-time settlement and reduced dependence on intermediary banks. The company estimates the infrastructure can lower foreign exchange and transaction costs by as much as forty to sixty percent.
One of the early users of the new Canada-Africa corridor is a Nigerian oil and gas services company that regularly bills Canadian clients. Before switching to Nomba, payments reportedly took between three and five business days to settle and required manual reconciliation. With the new system, the company now receives same-day settlement and can deploy funds immediately for payroll, suppliers or reinvestment.
Adewale said reliability matters more than novelty for businesses. Payments need to arrive when expected and be usable immediately, he noted.
Initial testing of the infrastructure focused on companies already active along the Canada-Africa trade route. Nomba said it processed more than three million dollars in transactions in January twenty twenty six and is now opening the platform to a wider range of businesses.
The Canadian acquisition forms part of a broader strategy to build regulated payment infrastructure in key global markets that support African trade. Nomba already processes trillions of naira annually across payments, business banking and cross-border flows on the continent.
Canada, Adewale said, offered a cleaner regulatory entry point than the United States, where licensing can be more complex. The company plans to use its Canadian presence to anchor partnerships while it works toward securing US licences.
Next on Nomba’s expansion roadmap are the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, targeting the Middle East and Asia Africa trade corridors as the company pushes to position African businesses for global commerce.
