Kora launches USD card-acquiring in Africa

By Gloria Methri

Pan-African payments infrastructure Kora has launched USD card-acquiring, allowing merchants on its platform to accept payments in US dollars. Kora’s Payin service allows merchants to receive customer payments using various popular payment methods, including mobile money, bank transfers, and cards.

USD card-acquiring is the latest addition to its suite of currencies that includes NGN bank account issuing, pay-ins, payouts, and cross-border settlement across multiple countries.

Speaking on the new product, the Head of Product at Kora, Sandra Israel-Ovirih, said, “Incorporating USD card payments has been a priority for a while now. We understand that many businesses operate in a global marketplace and need a seamless payment system to handle cross-border transactions. This will be a game changer for African businesses selling to a global market.”

By introducing USD card-acquiring, Kora plans to enable its merchants to create global businesses and contribute to accelerating Africa’s participation in global trade.

“We want the merchants we serve to scale globally. Giving them the option to accept USD is an important milestone in this effort,” said Dickson Nsofor, Kora CEO. “The focus is on Africa. But despite an increase in Africa’s participation in global trade, our contribution is still only around 3%. Giving African businesses the ability to accept global payment will accelerate Africa’s contribution to global trade. Our next step is launching a multicurrency bank account product that allows our merchants to access banking solutions currencies like EUR, GBP, and USD via the Kora platform.”

The USD card-acquiring product is the latest in a series of merchant-facing initiatives launched by the company in 2023. Earlier in the year, the company changed its name to “Kora,” moved its domain name to www.korahq.com, and launched a new corporate website.