How Onafriq is growing digital finance amid uncertainty in DRC
.jpg?disable=upscale&width=1200&height=630&fit=crop "How Onafriq is growing digital finance amid uncertainty in DRC")
While conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to dominate headlines and may give some investors pause, it has not stopped economic life on the ground or one fintech company from choosing to strengthen its ties.
Onafriq, a pan-African digital payments gateway, said that despite challenges in the region, partnerships have not slowed for the people of DRC in need of financial services.
“Yes, there are challenges such as affordability and financial sustainability, which are real issues that could affect future investment,” Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of Onafriq, told Connecting Africa.
“But transaction volumes are growing, partnerships are deepening and more people are getting access to financial services, and the regulatory environment is supportive. That’s what we look at for the long term,” he added.
Linking wallets and cards
The fintech giant, which connects 1 billion mobile wallets and operates in 43 African countries, supported the launch of Visa Pay in the DRC in the fourth quarter of last year, showing interest from multinational players that the country is ripe for investment.
This partnership helped bring “interoperability between mobile money and card networks at scale”, the company said in a LinkedIn post on Friday.
What inspired Okoudjou to continue investment in the country is his belief “that DRC is an underserved giant, and getting payments infrastructure right matters for the country’s development.”
Okoudjou, who has operated in the DRC since 2020, said Onafriq’s impact has been beyond a press release and can be witnessed in people’s daily lives.
“Families stay more stable. Businesses survive rough patches. Poverty gets chipped away at. That’s the actual return in these markets, where it just gets measured differently than investors usually expect,” he said.
Foster Akugri, former lead at Innovation Village with a focus on business expansion in Africa, told Connecting Africa that “you need a player like Onafriq that connects everyone in the ecosystem.”
Looking beyond risk
When it comes to the perceived risks of operating in a country like the DRC, Akugri said that “DRC in its entirety is not written off. So yes, there’s room to play with calculated risk management.”
Ryan Musser, program director for business policy and entrepreneurship in Africa at the Center for International Private Enterprise, said that “often African markets are viewed through a risk lens instead of an opportunity lens.”
“Providing financial services to the Congolese population is a massive opportunity, and any company that has a long-term perspective and is able to navigate instability and insecurity will be rewarded for doing so,” he added.
Musser said he understands a business need for “predictability and stability” but said businesses also operate in Africa because they provide important services that people need, and that goes for countries like the DRC.
“It’s not easy, but companies that are willing to navigate risk and weather instability can establish themselves as the leaders in a market and be generously rewarded for doing so,” he told Connecting Africa.
.jpg?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale "African woman using phone and bank card.")
Onafriq operates in 43 African countries connecting 1 billion mobile wallets and 500 million registered bank accounts. (Source: Freepik)
Okoudjou said that even though bank penetration is low in the DRC, the fundamentals are there and mobile money has grown substantially faster than traditional banking services.
“As of Q4 2024, there are 29 million mobile money accounts, a 34.6% penetration rate. While not all accounts are actively used, this points to headroom for deepening inclusion,” he explained.
Long-term investor strategies
Okoudjou said that if companies want to build something meaningful, it takes years, and if “you’re looking for quick returns, these markets aren’t for you.”
He highlighted the Central Bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s willingness to work with mobile operators to offer financial services and touted the regulators’ expertise.
“We have worked closely with mobile operators and regulators who understand the local reality better than anyone. [They] build systems that can handle disruptions, [and] offline capabilities matter when the power goes out, and you need real-time foreign exchange when currencies swing,” he told Connecting Africa.
“They get compliance right from the start, both global standards and local requirements,” he added.
Akugri, who also works closely with the Africa Fintech Summit collaborating with governments around fintech innovation and regulation, noted that instability doesn’t impact fintech.
“DRC has scale characteristics that override instability. Instability doesn’t eliminate fintech opportunity; it changes where opportunity concentrates,” he said.
“It’s a high-growth frontier where formal banking is weak, but mobile money adoption keeps rising. DRC is already considered late-cycle in mobile money play but early-cycle in interoperability. So, whoever wins that infrastructure play wins DRC. Like M-Pesa for Kenya, MTN Mobile Money for Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda [and] Uganda,” Akugri added.
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