Here’s how Ripple rival Stellar aims to disrupt Africa’s enormous remittances market

A new Europe-Africa payment corridor will be enabled in a partnership between Stellar and Flutterwave. The announcement shows a very strategic and crucial step for Stellar in expanding cross-border services and growing the ecosystem.

This partnership means a lot for those who need remittance corridors between the two regions, especially those African citizens who work in Europe. The result of the partnership is the launch of two new corridors between Europe and African on the Stellar blockchain.

Cross-Border Payments Solved

One of the best solutions of blockchain technology for financial systems is cross-border payment. Sending and receiving money between countries has always had many challenges due to regulations and infrastructure burdens.

Now, the decentralized architecture of blockchain and numerous products on it makes it possible to have cross-border payments very easier. There are some blockchains that mainly focus on this solution and have been successful in serving many users worldwide. One of the most popular ones is Stellar.

The new partnership with Flutterwave helps Stellar expand its ecosystem to more countries. Two new corridors are launched between Europe and Africa on Stellar. These corridors will help businesses that plan to build remittance services. The new services will be more efficient and cost-effective because of using the Stellar infrastructure.

Flutterwave plans to expand the partnership with Stellar gradually. The company is focused on adding new services to more countries in Africa. Besides, more currencies will be supported to complete the services.

Sending and receiving cross-border payments in African countries has many challenges and is often very expensive. The new solution by Stellar and Flitterwave may solve many of the challenges. Olugbenga Agboola, CEO at Flutterwave, said: 

“It is more expensive to send money to sub-Saharan Africa than to any other region in the world. 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.”

The new partnership can be more useful when more Stellar-based companies are connected to each other. For example, TEMPO can now connect with Flutterwave and create an affordable, efficient payment infrastructure in the region.

These partnerships surely support the vision of Stellar Development Foundation in providing easy access to financial services for everyone. Unbanked citizens worldwide are always a target group for organizations like SDF. New blockchain-based services can help these people by providing easy access to financial services. It’s the reason SDF supports initiatives from companies like Flutterwave and partners with them.