Written by Abiola Shogbeni
The blockchain bank is solving “impossible” problems for banks, enterprises, and merchants in a dollar-scarce world.
I’ve been reflecting on the evolution of our industry. For too long, “crypto” in Africa has been a story of circumvention, with people using shadow rails because the formal ones failed them. Billions flow through unregulated channels, not because Africans distrust institutions, but because those institutions couldn’t meet their most fundamental need: reliable access to stable value in a dollar-scarce world.
At Shiga Digital, we’re flipping that script. We aren’t building tools to bypass the system. We’re building the operating system that upgrades it.
This article explores how we’re changing that at Shiga. I encourage you to read to the end, but if you’re short on time, here are the key takeaways:
- The problem: Crypto in Africa has long been about circumvention, with people using shadow rails because formal financial systems failed them.
- Our approach: Shiga isn’t building tools to bypass the system. We’re building the operating system that upgrades it.
- Who we serve: Banks and fintechs (helping them retain customers fleeing to offshore exchanges), enterprises (protecting treasury from currency volatility), and merchants (unlocking access to the global economy).
- Why Shiga: We combine local expertise with global partnerships (Visa, Tether) and are in the final stages of securing relevant licensing.
- Get started: Apply for an account or contact product@shiga.io for tailored solutions.
The three pillars we serve
We exist to solve the “impossible” problems for the three pillars of the African economy: the bank, the enterprise, and the merchant. Each faces distinct challenges born from currency volatility, FX scarcity, and infrastructure gaps. Each deserves solutions built for their reality, not retrofitted from Silicon Valley playbooks.
Here’s exactly how we’re empowering our customers to thrive.
For banks and fintechs: The relevance engine
The pain point is existential: your best customers are fleeing. They’re moving billions offshore to unregulated exchanges to access USD stablecoins and higher yields. Every departure erodes the deposit base that fuels your business.
Shiga offers a different path, one where banks don’t compete against crypto, but harness it.
Our turnkey custody solution provides a modular, plug-and-play stack that lets financial institutions offer stablecoin wallets inside their own banking apps. The customer stays with you. The deposits stay with you. The fees stay with you.
We’ve built instant settlement infrastructure that plugs banks into Tether and VisaNet simultaneously. Cross-border obligations that once took weeks now settle in minutes, without depleting scarce Central Bank FX reserves. For institutions navigating allocation constraints, this isn’t just efficiency. It’s survival.
And critically, we provide a regulatory shield. We handle the VASP licensing and compliance heavy lifting, so banks capture the innovation without inheriting the regulatory risk.
For enterprises : The treasury shield
Corporate treasurers across the continent face a brutal arithmetic: for instance, holding Naira for 30 days can mean losing 10% of purchasing power. Paying a supplier in China or Europe via traditional rails is slow, expensive, and often impossible due to FX rationing. Volatility isn’t a quarterly reporting nuisance; it’s killing margins in real time.
Our Treasury Dashboard lets enterprises instantly swap idle local currency into USD stablecoins, preserving the value of payroll and inventory funds. They swap back to fiat only when they need to spend locally. Working capital, inflation-proofed.
For global payments, we’ve eliminated the five-day SWIFT delays. Our rails enable instant supplier payments using stablecoins, bridging the gap between local bank accounts and the global economy. Supply chains that were blocked are now flowing.
We’ve built these tools with self-custody principles at their core. Enterprises get institutional-grade infrastructure with absolute control over their assets, while still benefiting from our yield and settlement rails.
For merchants and SMEs: The growth unlock
Small businesses face a different but equally painful reality: they’re locked out of the global economy. Accepting international payments is a bureaucratic maze. Crypto feels intimidating: “What’s a seed phrase?” Meanwhile, McKinsey’s 2022 report The Future of Payments in Africa estimates that 75%of cross-border trade on the continent happens outside official channels, a shadow economy where merchants are leaving money on the table.
We believe the solution is invisible crypto. Using everyday devices, we’ve made accepting stablecoins as simple as sending a text message. Our virtual point-of-sale handles the complexity behind the scenes, and merchants just see a settled payment.
This opens doors to millions of crypto-native young Africans who live on-chain. Settlement is instant, and funds are immediately spendable via upcoming card integrations.
The Shiga difference: Local roots, global reach
Why do customers choose us over generic global providers? Because we’re local specialists operating at global standards.
We speak “local bank,” integrating with legacy core banking systems that global players ignore. We speak “global tech,” as alumni of the Visa Africa Accelerator and partners with Tether who have built bridges others haven’t. And we speak “regulation,” with additional relevant licencing in the final stages, offering a safe harbor in what remains a regulatory storm.
This isn’t about disruption for its own sake. It’s about building infrastructure that lets Africa’s economy and other emerging market economies work the way it should have all along. The formal rails failed millions of people. We are here to upgrade them.
Whether your organisation is new to crypto or already familiar with the technology, we invite you to experience Shiga firsthand. Apply for an account to get started, or reach out to our team at product@shiga.io for bespoke solutions tailored to your specific use case or organisation.
To keep up with Shiga and learn more about what we do, follow us on Linkedin and across social media.
About the author
Abiola Shogbeni is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shiga Digital. Before entering the blockchain space, Abiola built his career in investment banking at institutions including Santander Global Banking & Markets and RBC Capital Markets. He holds an MSc in Finance and Economics from the University of East Anglia. Shiga Digital is an alumnus of the Visa Africa Accelerator, and Abiola has spoken on emerging markets and blockchain at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He is joined by Dami Etomi, Co-Founder and COO, who spent nearly a decade in Nigerian oil and gas where he witnessed the operational pain of cross-border settlements and dollar liquidity firsthand. Together, they founded Shiga Digital in 2021 to build the on-chain banking platform for emerging economies they wished had existed.
