VALR and Onafriq Deliver Mobile Money Access to Digital Assets Across Africa

VALR, the Johannesburg-based crypto exchange and Africa’s largest by trade volume, has integrated with Onafriq, the continent’s leading digital payments network, to enable users across Africa to fund their accounts directly via mobile money. The partnership, announced April 9, 2026, allows deposits in local currencies such as the Kenyan Shilling, Nigerian Naira, Ghanaian Cedi, and Ugandan Shilling, with all settlements processed using stablecoins.

Mobile money is a cornerstone of African financial services, with the GSMA’s State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2025 showing 2.1 billion registered accounts globally by end-2024, over half a billion monthly active users, and roughly 108 billion transactions valued at more than $1.68 trillion in 2024 — representing 20% year-on-year volume growth and 16% value growth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile money contributed about $190 billion to GDP in 2023, supported by platforms like M-Pesa and MTN MoMo.

Onafriq operates Africa’s largest digital payments network, connecting nearly 1 billion mobile money wallets across 43 markets. The integration leverages this infrastructure, giving VALR users a streamlined on-ramp independent of traditional banking systems.

Through this integration, users can deposit via mobile money and access VALR’s full product suite: spot and margin trading for Bitcoin and over 100 crypto assets, tokenised real-world assets (gold, equities, private credit), yield products like lending and staking, and VALR Pay for payments. VALR serves over 1.7 million registered users and 2,000 corporate and institutional clients worldwide, holding a license from South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and regulatory approval in Europe.

“VALR’s partnership with Onafriq deepens our reach across Africa and the world, connecting many more countries and people to VALR’s wide array of crypto asset services and infrastructure,” said Farzam Ehsani, Co-Founder and CEO of VALR. “Mobile money has already reshaped financial access across the African continent. By enabling direct connections in local currencies, we offer millions a practical pathway to Bitcoin, stablecoins, tokenised gold, and more.”

Dare Okoudjou, Founder and CEO of Onafriq, commented: “We are truly excited to welcome VALR onto the Onafriq Network, enabling their clients across Africa to transact freely with the 1bn mobile wallet users and hundreds of thousands of businesses already on Onafriq’s network. VALR is a recognised pioneer and leader of Blockchain and Stablecoin technologies on the continent.”