Tope Alabi knew he wanted to launch a firm using what he learned working at blockchain consultant Consensys when he returned to Nigeria in 2019 after spending 20 years in the United States.

He and future partner John Obirije began testing a variety of concepts, including a hip hop chatbot and a quiz game, both of which were unsuccessful.

However, they noticed that they were running into the same problem throughout the trial and error: trying to pay business expenses for the numerous start-ups using money held in U.S. bank accounts. They decided to develop a blockchain-based money transfer system that allows users to move money by converting it to stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies backed by reserve assets.
This approach makes the transaction free and faster than Wise, which has a 6.45 percent fee and can take a few days to process. The service, Afriex, was introduced in 2019 and quickly gained traction. From then, things really took off,

“I’m not sure if it was the pandemic, but we started growing incredibly fast.” Initially focused
on Nigeria, the program has subsequently expanded to Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana.” Said Alabi

This approach makes the transaction free and faster than Wise, which has a 6.45 percent fee and can take a few days to process. The service, Afriex, was introduced in 2019 and quickly gained traction.

Afriex is part of a wave of fintech startups in Africa that are focusing on underprivileged and frequently forgotten customers. According to CB Insights, over $1.4 billion was invested in African fintech businesses in 2021, about seven times more than in 2020...more.. ttps://alabiansolutions.com/blog/afriex-a-nigerian-based-blockchain-fintech-raises-10-million/