Flutterwave Rolls Out Stablecoin Infrastructure to Enable Instant Cross-Border Payments for African Merchants

For more than a decade, African merchants have battled a persistent obstacle to growth: the slow pace of international payments. The problem has not been competition or inflation, but time. Under the traditional “T+3” settlement system, cross-border transactions can take up to three days or longer to clear. For an importer in Nigeria paying a supplier in Shanghai, funds often crawl through multiple correspondent banks, compliance checks, and foreign exchange bottlenecks before arriving.

That delay may now be coming to an end. Flutterwave quietly activated “Stablecoin Balances” for merchants on 22 January 2026, introducing infrastructure that allows near-instant cross-border settlements. The fintech has partnered with Turnkey, a crypto-security firm, and Nuvion, an AI-driven banking system, to create an alternative settlement rail that bypasses much of the traditional banking process.

Although official announcements are beginning to surface, confirmation that the system is live has emerged from a more understated source. TechCabal confirmed that the clearest evidence of the rollout appears in an update to Flutterwave’s Help Centre, where a new page titled “Stablecoin Transactions Best Practices” has gone live.

The documentation walks merchants through setting up USDT and USDC balances, generating wallet addresses, and funding accounts. Its presence signals that this is no longer a future-facing promise but an operational system: the infrastructure is in place, and merchants who know where to look can already use it.

The significance of the move lies in how responsibilities are split across the three companies involved. Flutterwave provides the merchant-facing experience, integrating stablecoin balances directly into its dashboard. Merchants in cities such as Lagos and Nairobi will now see these balances displayed alongside their existing naira and dollar accounts.

Turnkey underpins the security layer. The firm provides protected crypto wallet infrastructure, allowing multiple wallets to be created for each merchant without Flutterwave having to custody sensitive private keys. This approach is designed to balance strong security with ease of use.

Operating largely behind the scenes is Nuvion, which handles the rapid conversion of local currencies—such as naira, shillings and cedis—into digital dollars like USDC. Its role is central to eliminating the friction that typically arises from dollar shortages and slow foreign exchange processes.

The contrast with the traditional payment flow is stark. Previously, a merchant would collect naira, attempt to source dollars from a bank with uncertain timelines, and then initiate an international transfer via SWIFT, waiting several more days for settlement. The process could stretch to a week.

Under the new system, a merchant receives naira from a customer, which Nuvion converts almost instantly into USDC within the Flutterwave platform. The merchant then sends USDC directly to a supplier abroad, who receives the funds in seconds. The entire process can take as little as 15 seconds.

The result is round-the-clock payment capability, independent of banks’ access to physical dollars or their operating hours.

Flutterwave has hinted at this direction for months under the name “StableRails”. With the integration of Turnkey’s security infrastructure and Nuvion’s real-time currency conversion, that vision is now live. The company’s underlying bet is clear: the future of African cross-border trade may depend less on sourcing more dollars and more on digitising the value already in circulation.