Intra-African trade shouldn’t depend on dollars — Grey CEO

The Grey team at the 2026 Moonshot by Tech Cabal...Photo Credit: Moonshot Team

Cross-border payments company, Grey, says African businesses should be able to pay suppliers in other countries without routing transactions through the US dollar.

The company said it had developed direct currency conversion routes to reduce the steps involved in cross-border payments and address challenges with foreign exchange (FX) liquidity.

Grey’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Idorenyin Obong, said this while speaking with journalists on the sidelines of Moonshot by TechCabal 2026 in Lagos on Thursday.

Grey was the headline sponsor of the two-day technology conference, held at the National Theatre, Lagos, on October 28 and 29, which brought together technology companies, investors, entrepreneurs and other industry stakeholders.

Obong identified payment reliability and FX liquidity as major challenges businesses face when making international transactions.

He explained that a Nigerian business paying a supplier in Kenya might have to convert naira into US dollars before exchanging it for Kenyan shillings, adding another step to the transaction.

“Most times, if you’re trading within Africa, there’s always some form of intermediary currency.

“We’ve built out these currency pairs, these exotic currency pairs, such that you never have to go in between to the USD,” he said.

According to Grey, its payment infrastructure allows customers in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana to collect and send money, with liquidity arrangements supporting transactions in multiple currencies.

The company said the infrastructure enables real-time settlement in several supported currencies.

Obong also identified payment delays as another challenge for businesses, saying uncertainty over delivery times could disrupt procurement and trading relationships.

He said Grey provides estimated payment delivery times and had invested in infrastructure to improve the reliability of its international payouts.

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“We spent the last six years building the infrastructure to ensure that we’re delivering at the last mile at 99.99% to our customers,” he said.

During the briefing, Obong disclosed that Grey had processed more than 40 million transactions and nearly $`5bn in payments since its inception.

Grey Business, its multi-currency platform for startups and small businesses, has processed nearly `$100m since launching in February, according to the company. By June, it had processed $61.4m in its first four months, partly driven by demand for stablecoin-based payments.

The company has also expanded payouts to China, allowing businesses to pay suppliers in Chinese yuan.

Beyond business payments, Grey is expanding its services for individuals receiving income from abroad.

Obong said the company started in 2020 as a currency exchange service but later introduced foreign currency accounts after discovering that customers struggled to receive international payments.

“Most of our customers were using Grey to receive their foreign salary. And so we decided to build what I would call simply a salary account for these customers,” he said.

The company subsequently launched Paycheck, a salary product that allows professionals earning in dollars, pounds and euros to receive and manage their salaries.

Obong said the product integrates with Pouch, Grey’s savings feature, which allows customers to save towards goals such as education, travel and major purchases.

At the briefing, Grey also faced questions about difficulties some customers encounter when accessing foreign currency accounts and obtaining customer support.

The company said it offers round-the-clock digital assistance and operates a physical office, although it considers online support more effective for directing customer issues to its distributed teams.

Moonshot 2026, organised by TechCabal, brought together stakeholders across Africa’s technology and creative industries to discuss innovation, investment and business opportunities.