Mastercard and Busha Bring Verified Crypto Transfers to Nigeria

What to know

• Mastercard and Busha have partnered to bring Mastercard Crypto Credential to eligible Busha users in Nigeria, effective immediately
• Crypto Credential replaces long blockchain wallet addresses with a simple, verified alias — a user’s email or phone number.
• It’s part of a run of rapid product expansion for Busha, from stablecoin infrastructure to prediction markets to crypto-backed cards

Sending crypto to the wrong address is one of the most common, easiest, and arguably the most expensive mistakes crypto users make. On September 10, Mastercard and Busha announced a partnership designed to make that mistake much harder.

As of now, eligible Busha users in Nigeria can use Mastercard Crypto Credential to send and receive digital assets using their email address or phone number instead of a long blockchain wallet address. Busha is one of the first digital asset exchanges in Africa to switch this on for its users.

What Was Announced

Gabriel Swanepoel, Mastercard’s division president for Africa, said the partnership reflects a simple idea: “Digital asset transfers should be as intuitive and trusted as other forms of digital payments.”

He added that by partnering with Busha, “every verified Busha user is reachable simply using their email or phone number,” and framed the deal as part of “supporting responsible innovation and advancing secure, trusted digital asset infrastructure across Africa.”

Busha co-founder and CEO Michael Adeyeri described the partnership as core to the company’s mission of “making digital assets more practical, accessible and trusted for everyday users.”

What Mastercard Crypto Credential Actually Is

Crypto wallet addresses are long, random strings of letters and numbers. If you get one character wrong and make a transfer, the funds are usually gone for good.

Mastercard Crypto Credential fixes that by giving verified users a simple alias, similar to a username, that stands in for their wallet address.

Before completing any transfer, the system checks two things: that the alias belongs to a real, verified account, and that the receiving wallet can accept the specific asset and blockchain being sent. This significantly reduces the likelihood of a failed or misdirected transfer.

The aliases work across every exchange and wallet in Mastercard’s Crypto Credential network, not just Busha. A verified Busha user in Nigeria can reach and be reached by verified users on other participating platforms elsewhere.

Why It Matters for the African Market

Africa’s crypto activity leans heavily on peer-to-peer transfers and cross-border remittances. These are areas where address errors and fraud are a real, recurring problem.

Replacing long cryptographic addresses with verified aliases reduces the risk of misdirected transfers. A verification layer that catches mismatched wallets before funds move, and works, at least to the end user, similarly to a mobile money transfer, lowers the barrier for everyday users who might otherwise be wary of the technical risk of handling crypto directly.

It also signals growing confidence from a major global payments network in Africa’s digital asset infrastructure.

Part of a Bigger Busha Push

This partnership lands in the middle of a busy year for Busha. The company has partnered with Tether to expand licensed stablecoin infrastructure for African businesses moving money across borders. It also recently launched Signal, a licensed prediction market that lets users trade on real-world outcomes.

It is also preparing to roll out stablecoin-backed virtual cards that let users spend directly from crypto or fiat balances. Crypto Credential is yet another slice of trusted, compliant infrastructure layered on top of Busha’s core exchange.

Busha’s broader strategy, it seems, is to position itself as a fully compliant, end-to-end digital asset gateway for African consumers and businesses

It also mirrors a broader Mastercard strategy. The company has separately partnered with Yellow Card to target Africa’s remittance fees, using stablecoin rails to cut the cost of sending money across the continent.

Taken together, Mastercard is building out multiple African partnerships aimed at making digital asset transfers as ordinary and as safe as any other payment on its network.