Access Africa, Thunes move to improve cross-border payments in Africa

In an effort to streamline and simplify cross-border transfers and payments across Africa and beyond, Access Africa has formed a partnership with Thunes, a leading global payment infrastructure platform that connects over 130 countries into a single network offering its members seamless, interoperable, and frictionless cross-border payments.

The partnership will allow Access Africa to facilitate inbound and outbound cross-border payments in 13 markets: Botswana, Cameroon, Congo DR, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zambia.

According to Robert Giles, senior advisory retail, “This strategic partnership reinforces Access Africa’s commitment to providing customers and non-customers with access to top-quality remittance services. “Thunes is a cross-border payments network founded in 2016 that enables corporates and financial institutions to move funds seamlessly and provide financial services in emerging markets.

“Our partnership will significantly expand the reach of Access Africa’s payment and remittance services to over 100 more countries, and expose Thunes to all 60 million+ customers of Access Africa with over 600 branch locations.

Through this partnership, customers of Access Africa (both account and non-account holders) will be able to make simple international payments, as well as receive diaspora inflows in USD from countries in Africa, Americas, APAC, Europe, Greater China, and MENA, in the form of cash or bank deposits.

Related News

The partnership between Access Africa’s Payment and Remittance services and Thunes will bring the benefits of modern digital payment technology to the parties involved, addressing the frictions of the traditional bank-based cross-border payment flows, and making payments faster, easier, and more transparent.

This collaboration will bring significant improvements to the African Fintech ecosystem and payment infrastructure”. Rob said.

“Access Africa has been at the forefront of innovation in the African banking sector and is one of the largest banks on the continent. We are excited for the future of our partnership with Access Africa as we aim to enhance the connections between Africa and the rest of the world, bringing major improvements to customers who need to make regular cross-border payments to and from African markets,” said Aik Boon Tan, Executive Vice President for Thunes.

Access Africa is a Payment product designed to simplify Global payments by Person to Person, Business to Business, Person to Business, Government to Person, and any other payment activities/flows. It enables efficient and effective transfers including but not limited to school fees payments, merchant payments, e-commerce payments, trade payments, diaspora workers payments, etc.

Access Africa corridors include United Kingdom, China, Spain, Turkey, France, Italy, Germany, Cyprus, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, Hong Kong, Ghana, Gambia, Rwanda, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, DR Congo, Mozambique, Guinea, Botswana and many more.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.