Why African Fintechs are Moving to Stellar and Aptos for Settlements

The Cross-Border Payment Challenge in Africa

Africa faces unique challenges in cross-border payments. Traditional banking infrastructure is fragmented, with high transaction fees (often 8-15% for remittances), slow settlement times (3-5 business days), and limited interoperability between different financial systems. For fintech companies serving the continent's 1.4 billion people, these inefficiencies represent both a massive problem and an enormous opportunity.

Enter blockchain technology. Over the past few years, African fintech companies have been quietly migrating their settlement infrastructure to blockchain networks, with Stellar and Aptos emerging as the preferred choices. This shift isn't just about adopting new technology—it's a strategic move driven by real economic and technical advantages.

Why Stellar? The Settlement Network Built for Payments

1. Low Transaction Costs

Stellar's transaction fees are negligible—typically less than $0.00001 per transaction. For fintech companies processing millions of cross-border payments, this represents savings of 90-95% compared to traditional banking fees. When you're moving money across borders in Africa, where margins are already tight, these savings directly impact profitability and enable lower fees for end users.

2. Fast Settlement Times

Stellar transactions settle in 3-5 seconds, compared to 3-5 business days for traditional cross-border transfers. This speed is crucial for remittance services, where recipients often need funds immediately. The near-instant settlement also enables real-time payment reconciliation and reduces operational complexity.

3. Built-in Multi-Currency Support

Stellar's native support for multiple currencies and assets makes it ideal for African markets, where fintech companies need to handle dozens of different fiat currencies. The Stellar network can represent any currency as a token, enabling seamless conversion between, say, Nigerian Naira, Kenyan Shilling, and South African Rand without multiple intermediary banks.

4. Anchor Network for Fiat On/Off-Ramps

Stellar's anchor system allows fintech companies to integrate with local payment providers in different countries. Anchors act as bridges between the Stellar network and traditional banking systems, enabling users to deposit and withdraw fiat currency easily. This infrastructure is already well-established in many African countries.

5. Regulatory Compliance Features

Stellar includes built-in features for compliance, including KYC/AML capabilities and transaction monitoring. For fintech companies operating across multiple African jurisdictions with varying regulatory requirements, these features reduce compliance overhead and enable faster market entry.

Why Aptos? High-Performance Infrastructure for Scale

1. Exceptional Throughput

Aptos can process over 30,000 transactions per second (TPS), making it one of the fastest blockchain networks available. For fintech companies scaling to serve millions of users across Africa, this throughput is essential. Traditional payment networks struggle under peak loads, but Aptos maintains consistent performance even during high-traffic periods.

2. Sub-Second Finality

Aptos transactions achieve finality in under one second, providing near-instant settlement. This speed is critical for payment applications where users expect immediate confirmation. The fast finality also enables better user experience and reduces the need for complex reconciliation systems.

3. Move Language for Smart Contracts

Aptos uses the Move programming language, which was specifically designed for secure financial applications. Move's resource-oriented programming model prevents common smart contract vulnerabilities, making it ideal for payment systems where security is paramount. For fintech companies, this means fewer security audits and lower risk of costly exploits.

4. Low and Predictable Fees

Aptos transaction fees are extremely low (typically $0.001 or less) and predictable, unlike networks where fees fluctuate based on network congestion. This predictability is crucial for fintech companies that need to calculate margins accurately and offer consistent pricing to customers.

5. Developer-Friendly Infrastructure

Aptos provides excellent developer tooling, comprehensive documentation, and strong SDK support. For fintech companies building payment applications, this reduces development time and makes it easier to find and onboard developers. The ecosystem is also growing rapidly, with increasing support from payment infrastructure providers.

Real-World Impact: Case Studies

Preklo: Reducing Remittance Costs by 40%

Preklo, a mobile-first P2P payment app built on Aptos, has reduced cross-border remittance fees from the traditional 8-12% to just 2-3% by leveraging blockchain settlement. The app processes USDC transfers with QR code payments, enabling instant peer-to-peer transactions across borders. By eliminating multiple intermediary banks and reducing settlement times, Preklo has made cross-border payments more affordable for African users.

Rowell Infra: Unified Payment APIs

Our own Rowell Infra platform provides unified APIs for both Stellar and Hedera networks, enabling fintech companies to integrate cross-border payment capabilities quickly. The platform includes built-in compliance tools for African markets, reducing the time to market for new payment products from months to weeks.

The Economic Case for Migration

For a fintech company processing $10 million in monthly cross-border payments, the savings are substantial:

• Traditional: $800,000 - $1,500,000 in monthly fees
• Stellar: ~$1 in monthly fees (99.99% reduction)
• Aptos: ~$10,000 in monthly fees (98-99% reduction)

These savings can be passed on to customers, making financial services more accessible, or reinvested in product development and market expansion.

Technical Advantages for Developers

Stellar: Simple Integration

Stellar's API is straightforward and well-documented, making it easy for fintech companies to integrate. The network's focus on payments means developers don't need to understand complex DeFi protocols or smart contract security—they can focus on building great payment experiences.

Aptos: Modern Development Stack

Aptos provides TypeScript and Python SDKs, making it accessible to developers from traditional fintech backgrounds. The Move language, while new, is easier to learn than Solidity for developers familiar with Rust or similar languages. The comprehensive tooling and testing frameworks reduce development time significantly.

The Future of African Payments

The migration to Stellar and Aptos represents more than just a technology upgrade—it's a fundamental shift in how African fintech companies think about payments. By leveraging blockchain technology, these companies can:

• Offer more affordable financial services to underserved populations
• Scale to serve millions of users without infrastructure bottlenecks
• Enter new markets faster by reducing regulatory and technical barriers
• Build innovative payment products that weren't possible with traditional infrastructure
• Compete globally while maintaining focus on African markets

As more African fintech companies adopt these networks, we're seeing the emergence of a new financial infrastructure layer—one that's faster, cheaper, and more accessible than traditional banking. This infrastructure will enable the next generation of African fintech innovation, from real-time payroll systems to instant merchant payments to programmable money.

Getting Started

If you're a fintech company considering migration to Stellar or Aptos, the first step is understanding your specific use case. Stellar excels for simple payment transfers and remittances, while Aptos is better suited for high-throughput applications requiring smart contract functionality.

At Rowell Holdings, we've built infrastructure and tools to support this migration. Our Rowell Infra platform provides unified APIs for both networks, and our developer tools like Soroban Trace Explorer help teams build and debug payment applications more efficiently.