🇯🇵 Japanese money transfer giant opens corridor to Africa

The Japanese money transfer giant SBI Remit is now letting nearly half a million customers send money to Africa using the Bitcoin ($BTC) blockchain. Designed to be a faster, more reliable way to send money to Africa’s often overlooked markets, the new treasury management services are being provided by venture-backed firm BitPesa, which has raised $10 million from Greycroft Partners and others to turn the bitcoin blockchain into an enterprise payment rail. Instead of relying on a number of banks and other middlemen to move yen into U.S. dollars or euros and then out into African currencies such as the Nigerian naira or the Ghanaian cedi, the licensed BitPesa uses a combination of the bitcoin blockchain and other services to create new currency pairs.