ACCRA, GHANA – Bitcoin payment platforms Strike and Bitnob have partnered to improve cross-border crypto payments in Africa. The partnership was announced by Strike CEO Jack Mallers Tuesday at the Africa Bitcoin Conference in Ghana’s capital city, Accra. 

The two companies will use Bitcoin’s layer 2 Lightning Network (LN) to enable a feature known as “Send Globally” which will allow users to transfer US dollars from Africa and back instantly, free of stifling third party services and inaccessibility to US dollar liquidity that is common in Africa.

As Bitnob CEO Bernard Parah said, “what we have built reduces the pressure on our financial institutions in sourcing USD liquidity. People can now easily exchange value from the US to people in Africa in the cheapest way possible.”

The announcement comes as a huge benefit to crypto users in African nations where local currencies can be wildly unstable. In 2020, Nigeria alone saw remittance payments exceed $17 billion in crypto payments. Cross-border payments will infuse much-needed capital into local economies. 

At least six countries in Africa have banned cryptocurrencies altogether, including: Tanzania, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and The Republic of Congo.