Nigerian fintech Cardri builds payment and AI-risk engine to streamline cross-border commerce.
Cardri is a Nigerian fintech founded in 2022 by Bolaji Okunade and Clement David. The venture entered open testing in September 2024.
Core Product and Market Focus
Cardri offers a combined mobile-app and WhatsApp-integrated platform enabling users to transfer money across African countries. For example, a user in Nigeria can send funds in naira to Kenya in Kenyan shillings without first converting to dollars. Cardri currently supports payments to 20 African countries and global payouts to 92 countries.
As Clement David, COO of Cardri, explains: “Cardri is a financial technology company offering payments as well as AI-driven risk management tools for businesses,” that specializes in intra-African payments.
Innovation in Risk-Management and Value Proposition
Beyond payments, Cardri is developing an AI-powered risk-management engine that enables businesses to hedge against currency fluctuations and commodity-price changes.
“[T]his is the time that the AFCTA is intensifying efforts for the ease of doing business across Africa, and payments are the backbone of business,” says Okunade, CEO of Cardri. Cardri is positioned to be more than a transfer-tool, it aims to become a financial infrastructure layer for intra-African trade, particularly for SMEs.
Traction and Business Model
To date, Cardri has processed over 1,500 users and more than US$500,000 in transactions.
Revenue-wise, the company has generated $8,000 so far, primarily from global payout transactions; intra-African transfer services are currently offered for free as an early-user acquisition strategy. Cardri’s fees typically run at less than 1% per transfer, which is lower than many traditional banking routes.
Competitive Landscape & Strategic Implications
In a crowded African fintech ecosystem populated by players such as Flutterwave, Chipper Cash and Leatherback, Cardri differentiates itself via its AI-risk tools and its focus specifically on intra-African payments. However, it faces significant challenges: securing licenses across jurisdictions, building compliance capacity, and scaling in the face of well-funded competitors.
Implications for Intra-African Trade
By smoothing cross-border payments and embedding risk-management tools, Cardri is addressing a key friction point in intra-African trade, namely, the movement of money across borders. Cardri’s address these issues in a number of ways:
- Lower-cost, faster transfers can enable SMEs to source inputs from across Africa, expand regional procurement, and access broader markets.
- Integrated risk-management tools enhance certainty around currency and commodity volatility which is critical for trade in agriculture, manufacturing and regional logistics.
- Platforms like Cardri may become infrastructural enablers of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agenda by addressing non-tariff and financial integration barriers.
Outlook and Next Steps
The company plans to launch its WhatsApp interface by end November and aims to roll out its derivatives and risk-management platform pending a license from Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Q1 2026.
For companies investing in African trade corridors, this is a startup to watch: its success could reduce payment-friction and unlock smoother regional value-chains across Africa.
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