Ripple is expanding RLUSD into Africa through a new partnership with Flutterwave. The move could bring stablecoin payments to 35 countries and boost cross-border transactions across the continent.
In the latest Ripple news, the company is making a major move into Africa with a new investment in payments giant Flutterwave.
The African fintech company announced a Series E funding round that values the business at $3.2 billion. Ripple participated in the round as part of a broader partnership focused on expanding stablecoin payments across the continent.
The move comes as stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular for cross-border transfers, particularly in countries where traditional banking systems remain expensive and slow.
Interestingly, Ripple’s investment is about more than funding.
According to Reece Merrick, Ripple's Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, the goal is to establish RLUSD within Flutterwave's growing payments infrastructure.
“Flutterwave has built one of the most advanced payment networks in Africa, and as its infrastructure evolves, stablecoins are becoming central to that story,” said Reece Merrick
Flutterwave operates in 35 African countries and has built one of the continent’s largest payments networks. Ripple plans to bring RLUSD into that network and use the XRP Ledger to support stablecoin transactions.
The partnership will also see Ripple Payments used for cross-border transfers, helping businesses and consumers move money faster and at lower costs.
For Ripple, this is one of the biggest opportunities yet to put RLUSD into everyday payment flows and expand its usage across the market.
For Africa, this opportunity matters. Cross-border payments across the region often face delays, high fees, currency restrictions, and fragmented banking systems. In many cases, payments are routed through overseas financial centers before reaching their final destination.
In this regard, stablecoins will allow users to move value quickly, reduce settlement times, and avoid some of the costs associated with traditional payment rails.
To deal with this, Flutterwave has already been working toward that goal. In 2025, the company partnered with Polygon Labs to introduce stablecoin payment solutions for businesses. Earlier this year, it also acquired banking startup Mono to strengthen its payment infrastructure.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Nigeria received roughly $59 billion in crypto inflows between July 2023 and June 2024. The country also accounted for around 60% of stablecoin inflows across Sub-Saharan Africa during that period.
Having said that, many individuals and businesses are increasingly using dollar-backed stablecoins for international payments because they are faster and often cheaper than traditional remittance services.
RLUSD has made a lot of headlines of late, few of those given below:
Overall, the Flutterwave partnership fits into that plan. By connecting RLUSD to one of Africa’s largest payments networks, Ripple is looking to increase its use in cross-border payments and everyday business transactions as stablecoin adoption continues to grow across the region.
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