Fincra sees ‘real volume’ in Africa-Canada corridor with new payments licence

Wole Ayodele has a simple argument: Africa’s payment problem is not a product problem. It is an infrastructure problem. The continent has no shortage of apps that promise fast, cheap cross-border transfers. What it lacks are the regulated rails underneath them.

Fincra, the infrastructure company Ayodele co-founded in 2021, is betting its expansion on that distinction. Its latest move—a Payment Service Provider licence in Canada—gives it a regulated presence on both sides of one of Africa’s most active trade and diaspora corridors, replacing the correspondent bank chains that currently slow and inflate nearly every transaction.

The licence allows Fincra to hold funds, initiate transfers, and manage clearing and settlement on both sides of the corridor, without routing through the intermediaries it has spent years trying to displace.

“Securing a PSP licence in Canada is an important step in our mission to build the rails for an integrated Africa,” said Ayodele, CEO of Fincra, told TechCabal. “We have so much potential in Africa; we are the fastest-growing continent. But to really tap into that growth, we still need some infrastructure to get there.”

Canada is a key trade corridor for African businesses across various sectors, including oil and gas services, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) imports and exports, professional services, and technology. Between 2019 and 2024, merchandise exports from Canada to Africa grew by 13%, while imports from Africa increased by 109%. 

Yet, payments between Africa and North America are reliant on multiple intermediary banks, which could lead to slow settlement times and high foreign exchange costs.

“Canada was a deliberate choice,” Ayodele said. “It has one of the most significant African diaspora populations in the world, a robust and trusted regulatory framework, and a financial system that institutions across the globe recognise as credible. The Africa-Canada corridor carries real volume. We wanted to be on both sides of that corridor in a regulated capacity, not routing through intermediaries.”

Fincra’s immediate focus is the Africa-Canada corridor, but the licence also positions the company for a broader push into North America, where the same infrastructure gaps that define African payments persist on the receiving end.

That logic—get licenced, own both ends, then expand—is what Fincra argues sets it apart from the growing crowd in cross-border payments. Where competitors like Flutterwave, LemFi, and NALA have built at the product layer, Fincra is staking its position further down the stack.

“The crowding in cross-border payments is mostly at the product layer,” Ayodele noted. “What is still scarce is regulated infrastructure on both ends of a corridor simultaneously. Most providers are strong on one side and rely on partners or correspondent chains on the other.”

Founded in 2021 by Ayodele and Gideon Orovwiroro, Fincra now operates across more than 15 African markets and 9 currencies, with licences and partnerships in Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, and Kenya. The Canadian licence is its most significant regulated foothold outside the continent.

It comes six months after Fincra partnered with Reap, a global stablecoin-enabled infrastructure provider, to expand card services between Africa and Asia. Fincra obtained a Third Party Payments Provider (TPPP) licence in South Africa in 2025.

The company noted that its expansion logic follows the corridors where African businesses and individuals are most underserved by the current infrastructure.

“Europe and the UK represent significant volumes of diaspora remittances and trade flows that still move through fragmented rails,” Ayodele said. “We are building toward those connections with the same methodology we have applied everywhere: get licenced, get regulated, and build on both ends of the corridor.”