Yuno, a global payments orchestration platform, announced a strategic partnership on June 12, 2026, with Onafriq, a major pan-African digital payments network, to expand access to African payment infrastructure for international merchants. The collaboration will integrate Onafriq's extensive network, which connects over 500 million mobile wallets and bank accounts across 40 African countries, into Yuno's single API. This integration is designed to allow global businesses to accept a wide array of local African payment methods, including mobile money, bank transfers, and card payments, through a unified gateway.

The partnership addresses a persistent challenge in cross-border e-commerce: the fragmentation of payment preferences across Africa. While card penetration remains relatively low in many markets, mobile money services like M-Pesa in Kenya and MTN Mobile Money in Ghana dominate consumer transactions. Yuno's chief executive, Juan Pablo Ortega, stated that the alliance with Onafriq is a direct response to merchant demand for simpler access to these localized payment rails. "Our goal is to eliminate the complexity of integrating multiple payment providers in each African country," Ortega said, framing the partnership as a step toward more seamless global commerce.

Onafriq, formerly known as MFS Africa, has spent over a decade building its interoperability network, which acts as a switch connecting mobile money operators, banks, and fintechs across the continent. Its CEO, Dare Okoudjou, noted that the partnership with Yuno represents a significant channel for bringing African consumers into the global digital economy. "International merchants have often struggled to tap into the African market due to payment barriers. This collaboration directly bridges that gap," Okoudjou said. The move comes as Africa's digital payment landscape continues to mature, with financial inclusion initiatives and regulatory frameworks evolving to support greater digital transaction volumes.

This development is part of a broader trend of fintechs and payment processors seeking to streamline cross-border payments within Africa and between the continent and the rest of the world. On the same day, another announcement highlighted the growing interest in leveraging blockchain technology for similar purposes. Crossmint, a crypto payments infrastructure company, and Paga, a Nigerian mobile payments platform, revealed a partnership to build a bi-directional stablecoin payment bridge. Their system is intended to facilitate faster and lower-cost remittances and merchant settlements between Africa and global markets using USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin.

Meanwhile, other players are focusing on specific industry verticals. Nigerian payments infrastructure company Kora recently joined the International Air Transport Association's payment network to power airline settlements across Africa. This move aims to simplify the complex process of ticket sales and revenue collection for airlines operating on the continent. Separately, Flutterwave, another major African fintech, has outlined its ambition to build a stablecoin-powered payment network, signaling a strategic direction toward blockchain-based settlement layers for its services.

The Yuno-Onafriq partnership, however, is distinct in its focus on providing a front-end aggregation layer for merchants. It does not directly involve cryptocurrency or target a single industry like aviation. Instead, it seeks to be a comprehensive solution for any global business—from streaming services and software companies to e-commerce platforms—looking to acquire customers in Africa. By consolidating access to Onafriq's vast network, Yuno aims to reduce the technical burden and time-to-market for these merchants, potentially unlocking new revenue streams and contributing to the growth of digital trade across African borders.