Mambo 👋
A few weeks ago, Anthropic launched a new AI model that became unavailable in many countries outside the United States within hours.
Across Africa, many people asked the same question:
What happens when someone else controls the technology we depend on?
Some argued Africa should build its own AI.
Others replied that we simply cannot afford it.
This week, a different announcement made me think about the same question.
More than 150 companies, led by Stripe, launched the OpenUSD Network, an independent consortium created to accelerate stablecoin adoption.
This is not just another stablecoin announcement.
It is a group of competitors deciding to build common infrastructure together.
Visa.
Mastercard.
American Express.
MoneyGram.
Google.
BlackRock.
Coinbase.
Stripe.
They compete every day.
Yet they all agreed that some parts of financial infrastructure are better built together.
Africa is not absent from the conversation.
Yellow Card joined.
Absa joined.
FNB South Africa joined.
Nedbank joined.
Taptap Send joined.
That is encouraging.
But it also made me pause.
Africa is one of the fastest growing stablecoin markets in the world.
Yet many of the continent’s largest fintech companies are not part of the conversation.
Where are Flutterwave?
Where are Onafriq, M-Pesa, Interswitch, Moniepoint, Paystack, Chipper Cash, Wave, Equity Bank, KCB, CRDB, and others?
Maybe they are building quietly.
Maybe they have different priorities.
But as global standards begin taking shape, representation matters.
There is another reason this matters.
Today, many African regulators still see stablecoins as another form of crypto.
That makes many regulated financial institutions cautious.
Few companies want to become the first major voice pushing stablecoins while carrying the regulatory conversation alone.
A collective approach changes that.
Instead of one company explaining stablecoins to regulators, an industry speaks with one voice.
Distribution is another reason.
We have been saying for months that the biggest opportunity in stablecoins is no longer the technology.
It is distribution.
One company brings mobile money.
Another brings bank accounts.
Another brings cards.
Another brings merchants.
Another brings cross border corridors.
Together, they can reach hundreds of millions of customers without asking those customers to learn what a stablecoin is.
That may be the biggest lesson from OpenUSD.
The future may not belong to the company with the best stablecoin.
It may belong to the companies that work together to build the rails everyone else uses.
The question is no longer whether Africa will use stablecoins.
It already is.
The question is whether Africa will also help shape the infrastructure and standards behind them.
Written from inside Africa with love 🇹🇿💚
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