Grey is constructing its personal payment connections between African markets to make cross-border transfers extra dependable and to safe the overseas foreign money wanted to settle them, Idorenyin Obong, its co-founder and chief govt, mentioned at a press briefing at Moonshot by TechCabal 2026 on Thursday.
“We have invested in building rails within Africa,” Obong mentioned.
Grey lets people and companies ship and obtain cash throughout markets together with Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Moving cash between African international locations stays sluggish and dear as a result of payment techniques are fragmented, every conversion provides a charge, and {dollars} or different overseas foreign money are typically scarce.
Obong named two issues. The first is reliability: ensuring cash arrives when the shopper was informed it could. The second is liquidity: discovering sufficient of the appropriate foreign money to full the switch. Grey has partnered with suppliers throughout its markets to supply these currencies and settle transfers in actual time, he mentioned.
Most transfers between two African currencies have historically gone by the US greenback first. Grey says it now converts instantly between some African currencies.
“The crux of the matter is that there used to be a need for an intermediary, but we have built out these exotic currency pairs so that you don’t have to go that extent,” Obong mentioned.
The push follows two product launches this 12 months. In February, Grey launched Grey Business, a multi-currency account for startups and small companies. In July, it added local-currency deposits in Ghana and Kenya, letting customers fund accounts by financial institution switch or cellular cash.
Regulators are engaged on the identical downside. In June, TechCabal reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria was pursuing nearer regional funds integration, together with hyperlinks to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which lets African international locations settle cross-border funds in their very own currencies.
If firms like Grey can settle instantly between African currencies, a dealer in Lagos paying a provider in Nairobi would now not want to purchase {dollars} first, eradicating one of many costliest steps in commerce inside the continent.
