Kora Launches Stablecoin Payments for African Merchants

Kora, a pan-African payments company, has introduced a new product called One Rail that enables merchants to accept and settle payments in stablecoins. This move aims to provide dollar access to African businesses without the delays and costs associated with traditional banking systems.

The One Rail platform supports Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, the two largest dollar-backed stablecoins, at launch. Kora plans to add other stablecoins based on customer demand and regulatory readiness.

Dickson Nsofor, Kora's founder and CEO, stated that sending money to and within Africa costs an average of 8-8.8%, compared to a global average of 6.49%. He added that One Rail 'levels the playing field' for merchants by allowing them to add stablecoin payments to their existing systems.

Kora is pitching One Rail as an add-on, not a separate crypto product, requiring no blockchain expertise from businesses. Merchants can generate dedicated digital wallets to receive stablecoin payments, which appear in the main Kora dashboard with real-time tracking and automatic reconciliation.