Flutterwave Expands Cross-Border Payment Infrastructure Through Stablecoin Partnership With Tempo

Flutterwave, Africa's leading payments technology company, has announced partnership with Tempo, a purpose built layer 1 blockchain for payments, to expand stablecoin settlement options to cross-border payments across Africa.

The partnership aims to integrate Tempo as a blockchain settlement network within the Send App and Flutterwave for Business (F4B) platforms.

Together, the companies are working to combine their products, networks, and go-to-market capabilities to enable faster, more efficient global money movement once the infrastructure goes live.

Speaking on this, Flutterwave Founder & CEO, Olugbenga "GB" Agboola, said,

"We are building the infrastructure for how money should move in a modern, connected world, compliant, scalable, and designed for real-time global commerce. Our partnership with Tempo allows us to expand our existing payments ecosystem by adding additional practical stablecoin settlement rails.

"We are working together to turn these into everyday tools that will make cross-border payments faster, more predictable, and more cost-efficient for businesses and individuals across Africa. This actively removes friction from the system and expands our multi-rail standard of global payment connectivity for the continent."

Also commenting, Tempo Head of GTM, Dan Romero, said,

"Flutterwave has built one of the most extensive payments networks in Africa. We're excited to work with their team to expand their stablecoin settlement to cross-border corridors that have traditionally relied on slow, expensive fiat rails for years, and to get it into production on Tempo."

Stablecoins have increasingly emerged as a practical means of exchange within the global financial ecosystem, particularly in contexts where traditional transfer systems are slowed by intermediary processes.

By bypassing traditional banking intermediaries, stablecoin-based transfers offer faster execution, improved transparency, and more predictable transaction timelines, positioning them as an increasingly viable option for both individuals and businesses engaged in cross-border payments.

Flutterwave has been progressively exploring stablecoin and blockchain-based settlement as part of its broader push to improve cross-border payments and reduce transaction friction.

The fintech recent partnership with Tempo, is designed to tackle the high costs and prolonged delays that continue to affect cross-border transactions into and across Africa.

According to the World Bank, remittance fees to sub-Saharan Africa average approximately 7%, exceeding both the global average of 6% and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%.

In addition, the traditional dependence on complex correspondent banking networks and foreign exchange chains often results in settlement delays that can stretch across several business days.

These inefficiencies reduce liquidity and place additional pressure on the working capital of businesses and households.

To address these challenges across selected payment corridors, Flutterwave is integrating Tempo's layer-1 blockchain network as a complementary settlement rail within its broader multi-chain payments infrastructure.

The infrastructure already includes Polygon-based stablecoin settlement capabilities. Once fully implemented, the integration will enable wallet-to-wallet USDC and USDT transactions, delivering faster settlement times, consistent network performance, and more predictable transaction costs.

Tempo will function as part of Flutterwave's expanding blockchain settlement ecosystem, complementing existing integrations while reinforcing the company's commitment to Polygon-based stablecoin payment flows.

The addition will provide greater flexibility in settlement options across specific corridors, allowing Flutterwave to optimize transaction routing based on corridor requirements and operational considerations.