Most Africans who work online continue to face one major challenge: getting paid efficiently and affordably. While the work they perform is mostly instantaneous, payment has often lagged by days, been eroded by fees, and complicated by bureaucratic red tape. A new partnership between Noah and Payd aims to tackle these barriers.
Noah, a UK-based global payment infrastructure firm, and Payd, a Kenyan fintech company, are addressing the limitations of traditional banking channels. For example, when a freelancer in Nairobi invoices a client in New York or Berlin, the funds travel via the SWIFT network—a decades-old system not designed for the gig economy.
This often results in waiting periods of up to five business days, plus cumulative fees and exchange rate losses that can consume as much as 10% of earnings. The partnership seeks to fix this by integrating stablecoin infrastructure into the payment process.
Through this integration, Payd’s 30,000 users can receive earnings as if they were local employees in the US or Europe. Users can generate virtual IBANs for euro payments or US routing numbers for dollar transfers, allowing payments via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) in the US or the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) in Europe.
Once Noah’s regulated infrastructure receives the funds, they are converted into the stablecoins USDC or USDT and settled into the user’s Payd wallet in real-time, giving workers instant access to their money.
From there, users can hold funds in digital dollars to protect against local currency volatility, spend online using virtual cards, or convert to local fiat currency. In Kenya, funds can be sent directly to mobile money services like M-PESA. In Nigeria, users gain access to USD accounts without opening a traditional domiciliary account.
South African professionals can manage exchange control compliance, receiving funds into virtual accounts and repatriating capital as needed. In Senegal, creatives and freelancers can receive SEPA transfers from Europe and transfer them to mobile money wallets like Wave or Orange Money.
This approach removes the geographic friction that has long penalized African talent, treating digital workers as integral parts of the global economy and enabling them to receive the full value of their work without long delays or hidden fees.
