Nomba has secured a $3 million debt facility from CardinalStone Finance Company to expand its cross-border payment infrastructure between Africa and Asia.
The funding is specifically designated to scale the Lagos-headquartered fintech’s ability to facilitate trade payments, reducing the friction and costs associated with moving capital between African markets and Asian trading partners.
The transaction, facilitated by CardinalStone Finance Company Limited, reflects a growing trend of African fintechs leveraging debt instruments to fuel operational expansion rather than relying solely on equity funding.
Nomba provides a comprehensive suite of financial tools for businesses, moving beyond its initial focus on Point of Sale (POS) terminals to offer a broader “business operating system” for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The new debt facility will allow the company to deepen its liquidity pools and enhance the technical rails required to settle transactions more efficiently across the Africa-Asia corridor.
Cross-border payments in Africa have historically been hampered by a lack of direct corridors, often requiring transactions to be routed through third-country currencies, typically the US dollar or the euro, which increases costs and settlement times.
Reducing Friction in Africa-Asia Trade
The focus on the Asia-Africa axis is strategically aligned with the volume of trade flowing between the two regions. Asia, particularly China, remains one of Africa’s largest trading partners, with Nigerian importers relying heavily on Asian markets for machinery, electronics, and consumer goods.
By building dedicated infrastructure for these payments, Nomba aims to provide SMEs with faster settlement windows and more competitive exchange rates than those offered by traditional commercial banks.
The use of a debt facility from an investment firm like CardinalStone suggests a shift in how growth-stage fintechs are managing their balance sheets. In the current venture capital environment, often described as a “funding winter,” startups are increasingly avoiding equity rounds that might lead to “down rounds” or excessive dilution of founder ownership.
Debt financing allows Nomba to scale its infrastructure and capture market share in the cross-border space without sacrificing equity, provided the company can maintain the cash flows necessary to service the facility.
The movement toward integrated cross-border rails is part of a broader effort within the Nigerian fintech ecosystem to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) goals, although Nomba’s current focus extends beyond the continent to facilitate global trade.
Competitors in the space, including Flutterwave and Chipper Cash, have similarly pursued expansions into international corridors to diversify revenue streams and reduce dependence on the volatile Nigerian Naira.
The implementation of this expanded infrastructure is expected to lower the barrier for smaller Nigerian traders who have previously struggled with the complexities of international wire transfers and the stringent requirements of traditional forex markets.
Nomba has not disclosed the specific interest terms or the repayment tenure of the CardinalStone facility, but the capital injection is expected to be deployed immediately into the company’s payment architecture.
The company will now focus on integrating these expanded capabilities into its existing business app, enabling merchants to manage both local collections and international vendor payments from a single interface.
The next phase of the rollout will likely involve expanding the number of supported Asian currencies and establishing more direct partnerships with clearing banks in key Asian financial hubs.
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