Raenest, a Nigerian cross-border payments fintech, wants users to do more with their money than simply receive funds from abroad, co-founder and chief executive officer Richard Oyome said at Moonshot 2026 — TechCabal’s annual technology conference — in Lagos on Thursday.

Oyome traced the company’s strategy to the evolution of Africa’s fintech market, which moved from expanding access to digital banking and lending to helping people accept payments from international clients as remote work grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. As more Africans began working for foreign companies and serving customers overseas, he said, demand grew for financial services that connect them to global markets.

At Raenest Exchange 2026, held on October 21, the company announced a suite of new products and features, headlined by Raenest Vaults, a savings product offering annual yields of up to 16% on naira balances and 7% on dollar and stablecoin balances. Raenest also expanded its USDT and USDC payment capabilities, improved its invoicing and payment links, and introduced new card options, extending its services beyond cross-border payments. USDT and USDC are dollar-pegged stablecoins, cryptocurrencies designed to hold their value against the US dollar. That mix of naira and dollar-denominated offerings speaks to the position of users who earn from clients abroad while managing day-to-day spending at home.

“We were focused on receiving, but then again, receiving is just the beginning, not the end,” Oyome said at Moonshot. “The end is after receiving. When we started raenest, we focused on receiving not the end. Now, we’ve solved spending, now we’re focusing on the problem of earning.”

Founded in 2022, Raenest helps individuals, freelancers, creators, and businesses receive, send, store, and spend money across borders. The company says it serves more than 1.5 million customers and has processed about $3 billion since inception.

Oyome said Raenest was built to help people overcome barriers to participating in the global economy by providing accounts in their own names that connect them to international markets. The company initially focused on helping users receive international payments; its newer products are intended to address how users store their money and earn returns on it.

“Without the ability to earn or connect to global banking industries across the world, there is no opportunity to earn,” he said.

A more open regulatory climate

Oyome also said the environment for companies operating in the crypto industry is changing, with governments across Africa becoming more open to discussions about digital assets. In July, Nigeria signed a Virtual Assets Coordination Order that established a framework to coordinate oversight among financial, revenue, and capital markets agencies. The order also provided for a regulatory sandbox in which eligible virtual-asset businesses can test products under supervision. That marks a shift for Nigeria, where the central bank barred lenders from servicing cryptocurrency businesses in 2021 before lifting the restriction in late 2023. Ghana has introduced its Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025, which provides for the licensing and supervision of businesses operating in the sector. For companies settling payments with stablecoins, such regimes define the rules under which those operations run.

“Today, the governments across Africa are adopting. I think governments are happy to have conversations about crypto. It’s a success because we are coming from a very different time,” Oyome said. “It’s a good time for people playing in the stablecoin space.”

Stablecoins and settlement speed

The growing use of stablecoins presents an opportunity for Raenest to improve its payment operations. Oyome said stablecoins help the company settle payments faster.

“What we’ve seen as the biggest value is speed,” Oyome said. He explained that stablecoins allow Raenest to collect and settle funds faster, improving its cash flow and giving it quicker access to money that would otherwise take days to arrive.

As Raenest combines traditional currencies with stablecoins, Oyome said the company wants to shield customers from the technical complexity behind moving money across different networks.

“It can feel complicated. We don’t want it to be complicated. We have a blend of fiat and stablecoins,” he said.

He expects financial services to evolve toward a model in which users can move money without having to understand the underlying payment infrastructure or distinguish between different stablecoins.