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Nigerian fintech Nomba has secured a $3 million debt facility from CardinalStone Finance Company Limited as it steps up efforts to build payment infrastructure connecting African businesses with markets across Asia.
The financing is expected to strengthen Nomba’s cross-border payments business, with the company initially using its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a hub for trade settlements between Central Africa and Asia.
The facility will provide Nomba with additional US-dollar liquidity to support transactions through its banking relationships in Hong Kong and Singapore, while helping the fintech expand the number of payment corridors available to businesses trading internationally.
Nomba is targeting more than $1 billion in monthly cross-border payment volumes as it expands the infrastructure.
DRC Becomes Gateway to Asia
The DRC is central to Nomba’s latest expansion strategy, with the fintech positioning the country as a settlement bridge between businesses in Central Africa and Asian markets.
The company said its cross-border infrastructure is designed to address some of the difficulties African businesses face when conducting international trade, including unreliable access to foreign currency, delayed settlements and fragmented payment channels.
Nomba said it has spent the past 18 months developing infrastructure that combines banking rails, international payment access and local-market knowledge to allow businesses to move funds across borders more efficiently.
The company plans to use its DRC presence as a springboard into additional African markets, with Zambia and Uganda identified as its next expansion destinations.
Building Africa–Asia Payment Links
The move comes as commercial ties between African economies and Asian markets continue to deepen, increasing demand for payment infrastructure capable of supporting importers, exporters and other businesses engaged in international trade.
For Nomba, the objective goes beyond facilitating individual transactions. The company is seeking to establish payment rails that can support recurring business flows between African companies and their international suppliers and customers.
Yinka Adewale, Nomba’s chief executive officer, said the latest financing would give the company greater capacity to move liquidity across more markets and improve settlement speeds.
He said Nomba plans to continue expanding into new African markets while strengthening payment connections between African businesses and their trading partners in Asia.
$20m–$50m Fundraising Plans
The $3 million facility is only part of Nomba’s wider financing strategy.
The fintech is preparing to raise an additional $20 million to $50 million in the coming months to support the expansion of its international payments infrastructure and entry into additional markets.
Nomba said it remains profitable across its Nigerian and DRC operations, giving it a financial base from which to pursue the next stage of its expansion.
The latest debt financing also follows a broader shift in the company’s business model from its earlier focus on agency banking and payment collection towards becoming a wider payments and business-banking infrastructure provider.
From Nigerian Fintech to Regional Payments Infrastructure
Nomba, which began operations as Kudi.ai in 2016, has grown into a payment services company serving businesses with payment collection, banking and money-management tools. The company previously raised $30 million in a Pre-Series B round in 2023, led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Helios Digital Ventures, Shopify, Partech and Khosla Ventures.
Its international expansion accelerated with its entry into the DRC and the acquisition of a licensed Canadian payments and money-services business. The Canadian infrastructure gives Nomba the ability to facilitate local Canadian-dollar flows and connect them with African markets.
In January 2026, Nomba said it processed more than $3 million through its Canada–Africa payment rails during their initial testing phase. The company has also said its wider cross-border operations now process hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions each month.
CardinalStone Finance managing director Ayoola Adeola said the transaction reflects confidence in the growth potential of cross-border payments and the role of financial infrastructure in connecting African businesses to international markets.
For Nomba, the new facility marks another step in its transformation from a domestic fintech into an international payments infrastructure company, with the company betting that stronger Africa–Asia trade will create sustained demand for faster and more reliable ways to move business funds across borders.
