Nomba, a Nigerian fintech, has secured a US$3 million debt facility through CardinalStone Finance Company to expand its cross-border payments business from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), using the country as a base for trade flows between Central Africa and Asia.
“African businesses are trading more with the rest of the world every year, but the infrastructure to support that trade is still catching up. This facility gives us more room to move — more liquidity, more corridors, faster settlement. It's also a strong signal of confidence in what we're building for the next generation of African businesses,” said Yinka Adewale, CEO of Nomba.
The company is also preparing to extend the DRC model into Zambia and Uganda. The expansion comes as cross-border trade in Africa continues to contend with fragmented payment systems, limited access to foreign currency, and lengthy settlement times. For businesses importing goods or paying suppliers abroad, those frictions can tie up working capital and complicate trade.
Nomba has spent the past 18 months building payment infrastructure around banking relationships and international payment access. Its strategy is to use the DRC operation as a conduit between Central and East African businesses and overseas markets.
“This transaction reflects our confidence in the growth opportunity presented by cross-border payments, and the role innovative financial infrastructure can play in connecting African businesses to global markets,” said Ayoola Adeola, MD, CardinalStone Finance.
Founded in Nigeria in 2017 by Adeyinka Adewale and Pelumi Aboluwarin as Kudi.AI, Nomba began as a chatbot for helping consumers make online payments before shifting toward merchant payments and agency banking. It joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2017 batch and has since expanded into business payments and banking, raising US$30 million in a pre-Series B round in 2023 at a reported US$150 million valuation.