With a fresh CBN licence and direct access to Nigeria’s core banking switch, NALA is no longer just another remittance app — it’s becoming infrastructure. Here’s why that changes everything for the Nigerian diaspora.
For years, sending money home to Nigeria meant paying the price of a broken system — fees stacked on fees, transactions routed through two or three intermediaries before landing in a family member’s account, sometimes days later. Africa’s cross-border payments infrastructure has long been one of the continent’s most glaring inefficiencies. This week, global stablecoin payments company NALA moved decisively to dismantle that model. The company has been granted an International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and has simultaneously completed a direct integration with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) — the backbone of the country’s entire banking network. Together, these two moves give NALA something most remittance players in Nigeria do not have: direct access to the rails, with no one in between.
What the licence and NIBSS integration actually mean
These are not just regulatory checkboxes. The practical implications for Nigerian diaspora customers are significant.
Previously, companies without a direct IMTO licence had to route transactions through licensed intermediaries — each adding their own margin, their own processing time, and their own failure point. By plugging directly into NIBSS, Nigeria’s central payments switch, NALA can now process real-time payouts to all local banks and mobile wallets nationwide without touching a third party. Fewer hands on the transaction means lower costs, faster settlement, and critically, fewer failed transfers.
NALA’s Co-founder and COO, Nicolai Eddy, framed the achievement in terms of trust as much as technology:
“Securing our IMTO license and integrating directly with NIBSS is a pivotal moment for NALA in Nigeria. Trust is the most valuable currency in global payments, and this achievement reflects our deep commitment to global regulatory standards and our desire to build financial infrastructure alongside trusted national institutions. Nigeria is a cornerstone of our mission, and with this direct integration, we aren’t just expanding access — we are ensuring that every transaction is faster, cheaper, and more transparent for the millions of people who rely on us.”
Eddy also noted that Nigeria’s official $23 billion in remittance inflows may significantly undercount actual flows, with total transfers — including informal channels — potentially closer to $40 billion annually. NALA’s goal is to pull more of those informal flows into regulated, traceable infrastructure.
Nigeria’s remittance market: the numbers that explain NALA’s move
The scale of the opportunity here is difficult to overstate. Nigeria is not just Africa’s largest remittance market — it is one of the most important in the world.
- $23 billion in official remittance inflows in 2025 — the highest level recorded in five years.
- ~35% of all remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa pass through Nigeria.
- Remittance inflows have averaged 80% of Nigeria’s federal budget in value — dwarfing both foreign direct investment and foreign aid.
- Nigeria’s population is projected to reach 242.5 million by 2026, making it one of the fastest-growing consumer markets on earth.
- Digital remittance channels are growing at an estimated 15.92% annually — the fastest segment of the market.
Brian Edwards, NALA’s West Africa Country Manager, highlighted that a significant share of Nigeria’s remittances still flow through informal channels — back-channel arrangements that carry no consumer protection and no traceability. “Our goal is to bring transparency and trust into the system, allowing people to send money safely without relying on back channel arrangements,” he said. He also clarified a point many diaspora senders get wrong: remittances sent through CBN-regulated channels are not taxable, though local taxes may apply to how recipients use the funds.
The stablecoin layer most coverage is missing
Most reporting on this story has focused on the licence and the NIBSS integration. But there is a third dimension that matters enormously for where African fintech is heading: NALA is not a traditional remittance company — it is a stablecoin payments company operating on regulated rails.
In January 2026, NALA partnered with Noah, a global stablecoin payments infrastructure provider, to build a stablecoin settlement network on regulated rails. The customer-facing experience remains familiar — send money from a phone, it arrives in a Nigerian bank account. But behind the scenes, stablecoin infrastructure is handling foreign exchange conversion and settlement, reducing operating costs and improving speed in ways that traditional correspondent banking cannot match.
This is the same direction other major African fintechs are now moving. Flutterwave has publicly discussed building on stablecoin infrastructure, and the CBN’s own moves to formalise remittance flows signal that Nigerian regulators are increasingly open to this model — provided it runs on licensed, compliant rails. NALA now has both.
Rafiki: the B2B play hiding in plain sight
Beyond individual diaspora transfers, NALA is building something larger. The company operates a B2B payments infrastructure product called Rafiki, which allows global remittance companies — including major players like MoneyGram — to plug into NALA’s payment infrastructure via API. NALA then manages the foreign exchange conversion and final settlement into Nigerian accounts.
In practical terms, NALA is not just competing with other remittance apps. It is becoming the infrastructure that other apps run on. With a direct NIBSS connection and a CBN licence now in hand, that infrastructure position becomes significantly more defensible — and significantly more valuable.
NALA founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes confirmed the company now holds 14 regulatory licences globally — placing it among the most licensed fintech startups at its stage anywhere in the world. The company was also recognised in the 2026 Forbes Fintech 50, a list that tracks the most impactful financial technology companies globally.
A broader shift in African fintech’s winning model
NALA’s Nigeria move reflects something bigger than one company’s expansion strategy. As Techbuild Africa noted in its analysis, the winning model in African fintech is no longer simply about building a user-friendly app — it is about getting licensed, plugging directly into domestic financial rails, and controlling the settlement layer so that cost, speed, and reliability all improve simultaneously.
The companies that build this kind of deep infrastructure position — licences, direct integrations, local treasury, stablecoin settlement rails — will be structurally harder to displace than those competing purely on user experience. This is a pattern Techmoni Africa has been tracking across Nigeria’s fintech landscape: the next phase of growth belongs to companies that go deep, not just wide.
For the Nigerian diaspora sending money home from London, Houston, or Toronto — NALA’s infrastructure bet is ultimately a bet on them. Fewer intermediaries. Lower fees. Faster arrivals. And for the first time, a direct line from their phone to Nigeria’s banking system with no one in between.