Circle partners Cassava Technologies to bring instant USDC settlements to 30 African countries

Circle Internet Group, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has just announced its first major move into Africa. The firm is partnering with Sasai Fintech, the payments arm of Cassava Technologies, to weave USDC straight into Sasai’s existing digital payment rails, making money move faster, cheaper, and smoother for businesses and everyday people across about 30 African countries.

USDC, a 1:1 dollar-pegged stablecoin, is fully backed by US dollars and issued through Circle’s regulated entities. Think of it as programmable digital cash: it settles almost instantly on the blockchain, cutting out the usual banking delays and high fees that have frustrated African traders and families for years.

Sasai Fintech handles business payments, cross-border transfers, remittances, and those handy mobile wallets that millions rely on. By plugging in USDC and Circle’s full on-chain toolkit, the two companies plan to tackle the real pain points: sky-high costs, slow settlements, and all the friction that makes sending money from Lagos to Nairobi feel like a chore. The collaboration will test real-world uses, from everyday consumer transfers to big enterprise deals, all aimed at connecting Africa’s bustling digital economy straight to the global financial grid.

This comes on the heels of the outsized and rapid adoption of stablecoins on the continent. Mobile phones are everywhere, cross-border trade is picking up, and people are tired of watching their remittances get eaten up by fees.

Africa pulls in billions of US dollars in remittances yearly, but the average cost to send $200 home sits at about 7.9 per cent, sometimes hitting 8.78 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Stablecoins can slash that by as much as 85 per cent, with money arriving in minutes instead of days.

No wonder Nigeria and South Africa are leading the pack: nearly 80 per cent of surveyed individuals who owned crypto here already hold some stablecoins, and most plan to hold more. In 2024 alone, stablecoins made up 43 per cent of crypto volume in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria itself logging close to $22 billion in activity. A lot of Nigerians even prefer getting paid in USDC to dodge local currency swings.

Cassava Technologies brings serious weight to the table. Founded by Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, the group has built fibre networks, data centres, cloud services, and now AI platforms spanning Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. They just landed major backing from Nvidia to power the continent’s first AI factory, plus cash from Google and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Sasai itself is no newbie; it rolled out a fresh international remittance app with Western Union in South Africa just weeks ago.

Masiyiwa himself put it best: “Africa’s digital economy is entering a new era, propelled by entrepreneurship, a mobile-first generation, and the acceleration of intra-regional trade. By integrating with the trusted and widely adopted USDC network, we can drive financial inclusion and open transformative opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.”

Circle’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, sounded just as bullish: “Emerging markets are at the forefront of stablecoin adoption, and Africa represents a significant opportunity for internet-native innovation.” Working with Cassava, we can extend the benefits of USDC and on-chain infrastructure into high-growth payment corridors to deliver always-on global connectivity.”

What Circle and Cassava partnership means for Africa

So what does this actually mean for the continent? For starters, it could be a game-changer for the roughly half of African adults who still don’t have a bank account. Mobile wallets paired with stablecoins lower the barrier to entry dramatically: there is no need for a physical bank branch or paperwork. 

Families receiving money from abroad will keep more of it instead of handing chunks over to middlemen. Small businesses, which power most of Africa’s economies, finally get instant cross-border payments. That lines up perfectly with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) dream: cutting the forex headaches and slow rails that currently choke intra-African trade.

Zoom out a bit further, and you start seeing bigger ripples. E-commerce could surge, gig workers could get paid faster, and supply chains could run smoother. Local developers and companies now have access to Circle’s entire platform, which could spark homegrown innovations in decentralised finance, tokenised assets, and even programmable money tied to AI services thanks to Cassava’s Nvidia-powered setup. It’s the kind of infrastructure play that helps Africa build its own sovereign tech stack instead of always leaning on foreign clouds.

Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing. Rules around crypto differ wildly from country to country; some places are all-in, while others are cracking down hard. Internet access, power outages, and basic digital know-how still lag in rural spots. And USDT (Tether) still dominates volumes, though USDC’s clean regulatory story is winning over bigger players. Currency controls, especially in places like Nigeria, add another layer of complexity.

Even so, the momentum feels real. Circle’s USDC supply topped $75 billion by late 2025, and the company is printing solid revenue from its reserves. Africa already gave the world mobile money pioneers like M-Pesa; this feels like the next chapter, where blockchain meets the mobile-first reality millions live every day.

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