WapiPay Expands to Canada, Boosting North American Cross-Border Payments
By Varun Mittal
Kenyan fintech WapiPay secures Canadian license (MSB), enabling cross-border payments and digital asset services in North America. A major step for global remittances.
🔥 Main Takeaway
Kenyan fintech WapiPay just unlocked North America with a Canadian license, setting the stage for faster, cheaper cross-border payments and digital asset transactions globally.
📌 What Happened?
WapiPay, a Kenyan cross-border payments startup, secured a Money Services Business (MSB) license from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
This approval immediately enables WapiPay to offer foreign exchange, money transfer, and payment services across Canada via a new subsidiary.
Crucially, the license also provides regulatory clearance for handling virtual currency and digital asset transactions, a significant step for modern finance.
This marks WapiPay’s first regulated operational base in North America, complementing its existing network in Africa, Asia, the UK, and the Caribbean.
💰 Why It Matters
This move directly tackles the high cost of remittances, especially to Sub-Saharan Africa, where fees average 7.7% of transaction value — far above the UN Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%.
For young investors and consumers, WapiPay’s expansion means potentially cheaper and faster ways to send money globally, impacting personal finance and small business operations.
By combining traditional fiat capabilities with virtual currencies under Canada’s robust regulatory framework, WapiPay is building next-gen global financial rails, as Co-founder and CEO Edward Ndichu noted.
It signals a broader trend of African fintechs expanding internationally, leveraging regulatory approvals to tap into massive diaspora remittance markets and global trade flows.
👀 What to Watch Next
Observe WapiPay’s market penetration in Canada and North America, particularly how quickly they onboard users and integrate digital asset offerings.
Watch for further regulatory approvals or strategic partnerships as WapiPay continues its global expansion, building on recent launches like Jamaica in April.
Keep an eye on their remittance-based credit-scoring platform, launched in February, which transforms diaspora remittances into actionable financial data for Kenyan banks and could be replicated elsewhere.