Lumepay Enters Kenya as It Builds African Cross-Border Payment Corridors
Lumepay’s Kenya launch puts its cross-border payments strategy into a market it sees as a regional connector, not simply a new customer base. The Cape Town company says it has regulatory clearance in the form of a letter of no objection and a licensed local partner. Its chief operating officer, Luc Varejes, describes the opportunity as a structural one: making cross-border payment routes more predictable for businesses operating across African markets.
The company is launching in Kenya this month, its first stop on an African expansion roadmap. It also plans to attend Africa Blockchain Fest in Nairobi from 15 to 17 October. For Varejes, the commercial case rests on trade flows that already exist, while the payment systems handling them can leave businesses facing higher costs, slow settlement and uncertainty over when funds will arrive.
A cost problem rooted in payment routes
Lumepay estimates that inefficiencies in African cross-border payments cost businesses about $5 billion a year. Varejes attributes much of that burden to the number of intermediaries involved: correspondent banks, currency conversions and separate processing steps can add expense and delay to a single transaction. For a business, he says, the practical effects include working capital held up in transit, settlement times that are difficult to predict and prices that complicate planning.
The company’s response is to build payment infrastructure and liquidity across routes, rather than focus only on the customer-facing interface. Varejes says Lumepay is developing regional corridors and liquidity pools in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The intended result is stronger connections between African markets and between the continent and global markets.
Lumepay combines traditional payment infrastructure with stablecoin-enabled settlement rails. Varejes says that mix is designed to improve settlement speed and pricing predictability while retaining the reach of established systems. Whether it can deliver those benefits at scale will depend in part on the liquidity and local connections available in each corridor.
Kenya as a gateway to East African business
Three factors shape Lumepay’s choice of Kenya: trade, regional connectivity and existing payment volumes. Varejes describes the South Africa–Kenya route as one of the fastest-growing trade corridors. Businesses in both countries are trading more, he says, while payments between Johannesburg and Nairobi can still involve correspondent banks and currency conversions that add time and cost to supplier settlement.
Kenya’s established digital payments ecosystem, built in large part around mobile money, gives the company another reason to start there. The country also has links with Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and other regional markets. Lumepay’s strategy therefore treats Kenya as a potential connection point between its southern and western corridors and the broader East African Community.
Household transfers offer one indication of the money moving across Kenya’s borders, though they represent only part of the opportunity Lumepay is targeting. A 2025 remittances household survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Kenya estimated that households received KSh931.8 billion from abroad between June 2024 and May 2025. Over the same period, residents sent KSh40.5 billion out of the country.
Varejes says business flows add to those household figures: companies make international payments to finance trade, pay suppliers and fund investment. Lumepay sees demand for faster, less costly transfers as established, with the local partner and clearance providing the basis for its market entry.
Services aimed at operating businesses
At launch, the company plans to support supplier payments in the currency a supplier expects, including US dollars and Chinese yuan. For an SME paying an overseas invoice, that could mean settling directly in the supplier’s preferred currency and reducing the conversions involved in the payment route.
Lumepay also says businesses in Kenya will be able to access US dollars instantly. Merchants making bulk payments are another target: the platform is designed to process payouts to many recipients and across multiple currencies in one flow. The company says this can cover hundreds of payouts at a time.
Other payment options include ways to send and receive local and foreign currencies, USDT on-ramps and off-ramps, M-Pesa and payment links. Together, these use cases position the service around both collections and disbursements. The commercial test will be whether businesses can use those options reliably across the routes and currencies they need.
Infrastructure, liquidity and the competitive case
Varejes presents Lumepay’s model as a combination of traditional banking access, stablecoin rails and foreign exchange capabilities. The company says many providers focus on one or two of those areas, while Lumepay intends to bring all three into one offering, supported by experience operating in African markets.
That distinction depends on more than technology. Varejes identifies limited foreign exchange liquidity, settlement processes that can take weeks and demanding compliance work as persistent operating challenges. He says deep liquidity that can be routed efficiently takes years to build, and describes Lumepay as already developing and optimising those capabilities.
The company aims to cover several stages of a cross-border transaction: currency exchange, liquidity management, clearing, collections, disbursements and settlement. Varejes says customers can use one platform instead of coordinating multiple providers and intermediaries. Lumepay also describes its role as supporting post-trade processing and reconciliation across different rails and jurisdictions.
Its stated ambition is to connect the wider financial system, rather than displace every incumbent provider. The model therefore depends on how well the company connects its own infrastructure with banks and other local payment services, while maintaining the liquidity needed to move funds across corridors.
Five-year goals and the next market test
Over the next five years, Lumepay wants to build a customer base across markets and sectors, establish regulated payment infrastructure across multiple corridors and expand its liquidity and market coverage. Varejes also lists wholesale pricing and liquidity across African currency pairs, licences in major African markets and a high-speed stablecoin settlement layer among the company’s goals.
He expects stablecoin use to grow as access and regulation develop. Lumepay’s position is that wider adoption will reward providers with liquidity across corridors, the licences needed to operate in each market and connections between stablecoin settlement and traditional banking. Those capabilities, rather than stablecoin rails alone, will shape whether the company can scale its model.
Varejes says Lumepay’s founders have previously established, scaled or led functions in cross-border payments businesses. He describes the company as moving from operating experience to execution. Kenya is the first test of that approach: the company will need to turn its planned corridors, local relationships and payment options into consistent service for businesses handling real trade flows.
At Africa Blockchain Fest in Nairobi, running from 15 to 17 October, Lumepay plans to meet people working across African finance and trade. Varejes says being present helps the company hear directly from prospective users. For businesses, the measure of the launch will be concrete: whether payments arrive in the intended currency, on a reliable timetable and at a cost they can plan around.
The post Lumepay’s Luc Varejes on fixing the plumbing of African cross-border payments, starting in Kenya appeared first on The Fintech Times.