Nigerian payments infrastructure company Fincra has obtained an Enhanced Category Payment Service Provider Licence from the Bank of Ghana (BoG), allowing it to process local transactions, collect payments in Ghanaian cedis and receive inbound international transfers directly into the Ghanaian financial system.
The licence means merchants on Fincra’s platform can now accept payments through local channels including MTN MoMo, Telecel, AirtelTigo and local bank transfers, without needing multiple local integrations. Payroll platforms and international remittance businesses can also use the approval to send funds directly to Ghanaian bank accounts and mobile wallets. Businesses can set up local collection accounts in cedis, reconcile incoming payments automatically and access all these features through a single Application Programming Interface (API).
The development comes two months after Fincra secured a Canadian Payment Service Provider licence, continuing a deliberate regulatory expansion strategy across key markets. Chief Executive Officer Wole Ayodele has long argued that licensed, regulated payment rails capable of moving money at scale will define Africa’s next fintech era more than any amount of innovation alone.
“Ghana’s digital economy is accelerating rapidly, but the infrastructure to support enterprise-scale payment aggregation and inbound transfers is still too fragmented,” Ayodele said.
Ghana presents a compelling case for that infrastructure bet. Mobile money volumes in the country reached GH¢1.912 trillion, approximately $170 billion, in 2023. The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) estimates that informal cross-border trade between Ghana and its land neighbours was worth GH¢7.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone, pointing to a large pool of payment flows still operating outside formalised digital channels.
With the BoG licence, Fincra joins a small group of Nigerian fintechs, including Flutterwave and Paystack, that have secured equivalent regulatory standing in Ghana. Founded in 2021 by Ayodele and Gideon Orovwiroro, the company currently powers payment networks across North America, Europe and more than 20 African markets.
The move reinforces a broader competitive shift in African fintech away from consumer-facing applications and toward the regulated infrastructure layer that makes cross-border commerce work at scale.
