Kora, a payment solutions provider serving businesses across Africa, has launched One Rail, a new service that lets merchants manage stablecoin payments alongside traditional currencies. The product initially supports USDT and USDC, two stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, giving businesses a more efficient way to handle payments. Because both tokens track the value of the dollar, they give merchants in markets where access to dollar accounts is often difficult a way to hold and move dollar-denominated funds digitally.

Through One Rail, merchants can create digital wallets for stablecoin transactions, track payments, and manage balances through a user-friendly dashboard. The service also lets them convert stablecoins into local currencies and settle funds directly into local bank accounts. In conventional cross-border payment flows, those steps typically pass through several intermediaries, each adding cost and delay.

Kora positions the launch as a way to make international payments simpler and cheaper for African businesses by reducing the complexity of dealing with multiple currencies and slow settlement times, and to give merchants more freedom to participate in the global market.

About Kora

Kora, formerly known as Korapay (company website), is a payments company founded in 2018 and based in Dubai. Its mission is to simplify transactions for businesses by providing payment infrastructure that connects them to financial systems across Africa. This includes facilitating bank transfers, integrating mobile money wallets, and linking to card networks in key markets such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and Egypt.

As a practical example, a business in Nigeria that wants to receive payments from international customers in USDC can create a digital wallet through Kora to accept the funds. The business can then choose to keep the money in USDC or convert it into naira before depositing it into a local bank account. The company says this simple process helps businesses manage their finances more effectively and efficiently.

One Rail is built around three key functions for businesses: collecting payments, making payouts, and managing treasury operations. Kora provides essential features to help companies get started, including wallet generation, payment confirmations, and manual settlement options.

High cost of cross-border payments

For many African businesses, handling cross-border payments remains a challenging and expensive task. The average cost of sending remittances across the continent ranges from 8% to 8.8%, according to figures cited by Kora, which is significantly higher than the global average of 6.49%. This adds difficulty for companies that need access to US dollars or other foreign currencies, and slow settlement times further complicate cross-border trade for companies operating across multiple markets.

Kora's CEO and founder, Dickson Nsofor, highlighted the friction businesses face in cross-border commerce, saying, "Cross-border commerce in Africa is hindered by high friction and remittance costs averaging 8–8.8% compared to the 6.49% global average. At the same time, stablecoin ownership in Africa is now at 78%."

Stablecoin usage is rising rapidly across Africa, with an ownership rate the company puts at 78%. Nsofor cited the adoption level as evidence of the need for more accessible payment solutions across the continent. Kora said this growing trend presents an opportunity for businesses to improve their payment systems and reduce their reliance on traditional international payment methods.

Dollar-pegged stablecoins such as USDT and USDC have become among the most widely used digital assets in emerging markets, largely because they let businesses and individuals hold dollar value without a foreign bank account — a constraint African firms know well. That makes the combination Kora is offering, dollar-linked tokens paired with local-currency payouts, a potential alternative to the costly correspondent chains behind the remittance figures above.

According to the company, One Rail is designed to make cross-border transactions faster, more affordable, and more accessible, supporting growth and innovation for businesses in the region. The service launches with support for USDT and USDC alongside manual settlement options, so how quickly merchants adopt its wallets — and whether Kora broadens the range of supported stablecoins and payout currencies across its markets — will indicate how far stablecoin rails extend into everyday African commerce.