Absa Kenya Explains How Stablecoins Could Transform Cross-Border Payments in Africa

TL;DR

• Stella Wambere Mambo, Global Markets Director at Absa Kenya, states that stablecoins could solve persistent cross-border payment issues across Africa.
• Stablecoins can cut foreign exchange costs, navigate local currency illiquidity, and speed up slow traditional correspondent-banking settlements.
• Funding for blockchain projects remains uneven. Pan-African projects took 57% of investment, while Kenya received just 2% across 2025.
• Absa recently launched Ripple-powered custody services, laying the foundation for institutions to explore digital asset trading and tokenisation.
• Regulatory frameworks are expanding quickly across key African markets, giving institutions clearer guidelines and greater confidence in the market.

Stella Wambere Mambo, Global Markets Director at Absa Bank Kenya, says blockchain-based financial infrastructure could solve persistent payment problems in Africa. Addressing key industry challenges, Mambo emphasises that stablecoins, real-world asset tokenisation, and digital asset custody hold the potential to modernise African financial services.

How Stablecoins Could Improve Cross-Border Payments

Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to hold a steady value, often against the US dollar. 

“Stablecoins [are] coming to help solve some of the problems that the traditional rails have not been able to capture,” Mambo says. She also highlights four pain points she believes stablecoins could address.

These include the cost of cross-border payments, local currency illiquidity, slow settlement times, and operational inefficiencies. The traditional rails, Mambo says, could potentially cost someone moving money from Kenya to Lagos “a multitude of dollars.” 

Mambo says stablecoins could cut foreign exchange costs. She suggests they could support cross-border settlement. This could help in markets where local currency liquidity is thin. They may also bypass some delays of traditional correspondent banking.

“We are really excited in terms of what the cross-border landscape looks like with the engine powered by stablecoins,” she added. 

Funding Patterns Show an Uneven Landscape

Mambo cites the African Blockchain Report 2025, produced by CV VC with Absa Corporate and Investment Banking. Mambo highlighted regional funding disparities. Pan-African blockchain ventures reportedly attracted approximately $51.5 million across 10 deals, 57.2% of regional funding.

South Africa received 21%, or $19 million, across eight deals. Nigeria recorded $12.2 million across five deals, 13.5% of the total.

Kenya accounted for roughly 2% with $2 million in just one deal. Such a skew could leave smaller national ecosystems, including Kenya’s, with less capital to build on. Mambo says the dynamics are important because they affect “technology that will be consumed within the African continent.” 

Custody and Tokenisation Could Expand Institutional Participation

Absa recently launched Ripple-powered digital asset custody. Secure digital asset custody remains a foundational requirement for institutional participation. Beyond safeguarding funds, established custody solutions pave the way for institutional clients to safely explore treasury management, trading and asset tokenisation. As Crypto Africa News previously reported, Absa has been exploring these offerings.

Trust and Regulation Remain Essential

Stella Mambo highlights the change in the African digital asset regulatory landscape. “Two years ago,” she notes, “it was almost a no-go zone, very secretive. People never wanted to talk about it. But the transition we’ve seen as we come in from 2025 is that a lot of the African markets have started embracing virtual assets. On the back end of that, we’ve actually seen a lot of jurisdictions coming up with registration frameworks to control or manage virtual assets.”

The record supports her view. Three of the continent’s biggest markets show how far attitudes have moved. Nigeria has shifted from a historically cautious stance to a more coordinated one. On 17 July 2026, President Bola Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026.

Kenya moved from regulatory uncertainty to a statutory framework. Parliament passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act in October 2025, and it came into force on 4 November 2025.

South Africa shows what market maturity looks like. Its crypto licensing regime dates back to 2023. As of early 2026, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority had approved roughly 310 of 533 applications from crypto asset service providers.

Other markets are following. Tanzania is moving to finalise crypto regulations, Zimbabwe is advancing crypto registration rules, Rwanda is taking its virtual assets law to parliament, and Côte d’Ivoire is welcoming blockchain and digital assets.

Significant regulatory progress is important. Clear licensing rules give banks like Absa, payment providers, and investors a firmer footing and market confidence.

Stablecoins and digital assets could improve Africa’s payment landscape if they are supported by clear, consistent regulation; real adoption by businesses and consumers; and public trust in the systems that hold their money.