Our story
There's a gap between Nigeria and China's payment systems.
We're closing it.
Millions of dollars in trade flows between Nigeria and China every month. Nigerian importers, small businesses, and individuals source goods from Chinese suppliers every day — fabric from Guangzhou, electronics from Shenzhen, goods from Yiwu market.
The problem
Chinese merchants on platforms like Alibaba, 1688, Taobao, and countless local suppliers predominantly accept Alipay as their payment method. Alipay requires a Chinese bank-linked account to make payments. Nigerian cards and bank accounts are simply not accepted.
This means that to pay a Chinese supplier, a Nigerian business owner has historically had two options: find a friend in China willing to pay on their behalf, or use an informal agent who collects NGN locally and pays from their personal Alipay.
Both options work — but only if you know the right person, trust them completely, and accept that there is no recourse if something goes wrong. It's slow, opaque, and carries real personal and financial risk.
This is a widespread, everyday problem.
Walk into any Lagos market that sells Chinese goods — Balogun, Computer Village, Alaba International. Ask the traders how they pay their suppliers. Almost all of them will describe some variation of the same informal workaround. It works today, but it doesn't scale, it isn't safe, and it shouldn't be the only option.
What Curensi does
Curensi is the legitimate, digitised version of the informal solution that already exists — built on licensed payment infrastructure, transparent fees, and a full digital audit trail.
A Nigerian user submits an Alipay QR code and the amount they want to send. We show them the exact NGN equivalent, our fee, and the live exchange rate — locked for the duration of the transaction. They pay in NGN using their Nigerian bank account, debit card, or USSD. We handle everything from there: converting the funds and delivering CNY to the merchant's Alipay.
If a disbursement ever fails, an automatic refund is initiated immediately. There are no ambiguous conversations, no asking someone to “check their Alipay,” no waiting to find out what happened to your money.
01
Submit
Scan or paste an Alipay QR code and enter the CNY amount.
02
Review
See the exact NGN cost including our fee. Rate is locked for your transaction.
03
Pay
Pay via bank transfer, card, or USSD. CNY arrives at the merchant's Alipay.
Why it matters
Nigeria-China trade is substantial and growing. Nigerian SMEs, sole traders, and individuals are active participants in that trade — importing goods, reselling, building businesses. The payment gap is a real friction point that costs time, money, and trust every single day.
Curensi is starting with the Nigeria→China corridor, but the architecture is designed to support additional corridors. The same problem — a local currency with no direct path to a dominant regional payment system — exists across Africa and beyond. We're building something that can grow with that need.
Launching soon.
We're putting the finishing touches on Curensi. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know the moment it's ready.
Join the waitlist