Wapi Pay, one of the first leading Africa-Asia financial providers has expanded its global footprint into North America after securing a Money Services Business (MSB) licence in Canada.
The regulatory approval enables the company to offer cross-border payment and remittance services in the Canadian market, marking a significant milestone in its international growth strategy.
With this move, Wapi Pay aims to strengthen financial connections between Africa and Canada, providing businesses and individuals with faster, more affordable, and seamless cross-border payment solutions.
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Commenting on this milestone, Co-founder and CEO Edward Ndichu said,
“Securing a footprint in North America through obtaining a Money Services Business licence is a massive milestone for WapiPay. By pairing traditional fiat payment capabilities with virtual currencies and digital assets under a robust Canadian regulatory framework, we are building the next generation of global financial rails.”
Remittance flows between Africa and Canada represent a growing but still underserved segment of the global payments market, driven largely by migration, education, business activity, and family support.
As Canada continues to attract immigrants, students, and skilled workers from African countries, the volume of money transferred between both regions has increased steadily in recent years.
Canada is home to one of the fastest-growing African diaspora populations, with significant communities originating from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, and several other African countries.
These communities regularly send money to relatives, support businesses, pay school fees, fund healthcare expenses, and invest in property and entrepreneurial ventures across the continent.
Globally, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached an estimated $685 billion in 2024, exceeding foreign direct investment and official development assistance combined.
Sub-Saharan Africa received approximately $54 billion in remittances, highlighting the growing importance of diaspora-driven financial flows to the region’s economies.
Despite this growth, the Africa–Canada remittance corridor remains characterized by several structural challenges. Traditional international transfers often involve multiple intermediary banks, resulting in high transaction fees, foreign exchange markups, and settlement times that can take several days.
The World Bank estimates that sending money to Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the most expensive remittance corridors globally, with average costs close to 8% of the transaction value, significantly above the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%.
These inefficiencies have created opportunities for fintech companies like Wapi Pay to disrupt the market.
Notably, the Kenyan fintech expansion to Canada comes after it secured regulatory approval to launch in Jamaica in April this year, marking its entry into the Caribbean and a push into one of the world’s most remittance-dependent regions.
Founded in Singapore in 2019, WapiPay supports cross-border payments for individuals, merchants, and businesses. The platform combines app transfers, business payouts, API access, and OTC support across corridors in Africa, Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with physical offices in Nairobi and Kampala.
The company delivers platform to platform integrations and virtual accounts (wallets) through its technology to offer its partners and customers convenient global payments and financial products for individuals, merchants and businesses.
From Africa to Asia, the UK, and the US, WapiPay supports app transfers, business payouts, and larger settlement needs across supported routes.
In February 2026, the fintech launched a credit scoring tool for Kenyan financial institutions like banks and SACCOs, which it says will help lenders use diaspora remittances to make loan decisions for millions of households that rely on money sent by relatives abroad.
Delivered through a single API integration, the tool enables lenders to formally recognise remittance beneficiaries as income earners, expanding access to credit while improving risk assessment.
Wapi Pay believes that small business is made up of the individual therefore, its vision is to build global financial services for local individuals and small business to scale globally, focusing on Africa and Asia.