Nigeria’s booming $20.98 billion remittance market is getting even more crowded as Kuda Technologies announced the launch of its multicurrency wallet targeted at diasporan Nigerians.
The new product, which allows users in the diaspora to send funds in British pounds and euros directly to Nigeria, signals Kuda’s official entry into the increasingly competitive digital remittance space.
The move places Kuda in direct competition with fintech such as Moniepoint, LemFi, PalmPay, and Flutterwave, all of which are aggressively expanding their cross-border payments solutions.
According to Nosakhare Oyegun, Kuda’s Vice President of Product Innovation and Strategy, the decision to launch the multicurrency wallet stems from changing patterns in user behaviour.
“Many of our customers have relocated from Nigeria in recent years but still maintain strong financial ties back home,” Oyegun said. “They continue to send money to their Kuda accounts to cover personal expenses or support family.”
While the product is structured as a remittance tool, Babs Ogundeyi, Kuda’s chief executive officer, emphasised that it is more about enhancing value for existing customers than chasing new markets. “A lot of our users were already using external apps to send money into their Kuda wallets,” Ogundeyi said. “This new feature simplifies that process by eliminating the need for multiple platforms.”
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For now, the multicurrency wallet supports only pounds and euros, with plans to add U.S. and Canadian dollars within the next six months. The feature is currently available exclusively to users outside Nigeria.
Also, PalmPay is ramping up efforts in the cross-border space. The company is reportedly in talks to raise between $50 million and $100 million in a Series B funding round, according to TechCrunch. The planned raise is expected to support its expansion in Nigeria, scale its business services, and push into new markets across Africa and Asia.
PalmPay, which boasts 35 million registered users and processes 15 million transactions daily (roughly 5.4 billion annually), recently expanded into Tanzania and Bangladesh, where it is piloting credit products and device financing.
Flutterwave, another key player in the space, has relaunched its Send App in Europe, one year after suspending the service due to what it described as “maintenance.” The app now enables users in France, Germany, Ireland, and Italy to send money across borders, including to African countries like Nigeria, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon.
LemFi is not left out as it launched its international payment services in Egypt, aiming to serve the country’s large diaspora and tap into the remittance market.
This strategic expansion enables LemFi to serve Egypt’s large diaspora community, capitalising on the country’s rising adoption of digital payment solutions. It also strengthens the company’s presence across North Africa, where it already supports the Moroccan and Tunisian diaspora.
