The cross-border payments platform, which has processed over $4 billion across African trade corridors, is now authorised to serve UK residents, with remittances, multi-currency accounts, and FX services in development.
Juicyway has received an Authorised Payment Institution (API) licence from the Financial Conduct Authority, the United Kingdom’s primary financial regulator. The licence authorises Juicyway to provide payment services to individuals and businesses in the UK and marks the beginning of the company’s formal entry into the British market, where it plans to launch remittance services, multi-currency accounts, and foreign exchange products tailored to African corridor needs.
The FCA has deliberately tightened its approval gateway in recent years. Application refusal rates have risen from approximately 1 in 14 in 2021 to 1 in 5 by 2023, with approval rates now hovering around 20%.
Authorisation requires passing a rigorous review of a company’s compliance infrastructure, capital adequacy, fund safeguarding standards, and operational resilience; the same framework is applied to every regulated payment institution operating in the UK.
Clearing that bar is a meaningful signal of institutional credibility.
The timing reflects the scale of the opportunity. The UK-Africa remittance corridor moves billions of pounds annually, yet the experience for senders remains costly and fragmented. Africans in the UK, whether sending monthly support to family, paying suppliers across the continent, or managing multi-currency business accounts, have largely had to rely on platforms that weren’t designed around African corridors, with the currency pairs, speed, and pricing that diaspora users and businesses actually need.
Juicyway is building for exactly this audience.
“Getting this licence was not the easy path,” said Ife Johnson, Founder and CEO of Juicyway. “It required months of demonstrating that our compliance, our controls, and our operational standards meet the bar the FCA sets. We did that work because we believe the African community in the UK deserves a financial platform that was built for them, regulated, reliable, and on their side. This is the foundation. The product follows.”
Juicyway serves over 2,200 enterprises and 17,000 individuals, having processed more than $4 billion in transaction volume across African currency corridors and beyond.
UK residents can learn more about Juicyway at juicyway.com
