Kotani Pay: Helping Shape Africa’s Digital Payments

Kotani Pay has earned a place at the table where Africa’s payments future is being shaped. The Nairobi Garage member has joined the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Private Sector Coalition, and its CEO, Felix Macharia, has sat down with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, alongside Equity Group CEO Dr James Mwangi and AfricaNenda Foundation CEO Dr Robert Ochola, to talk about how money should move across the continent.

Kotani Pay is a Nairobi-founded fintech. It helps businesses move money across African borders by linking stablecoins to mobile money and bank channels. It has also been invited into a coalition that wants payment systems across the continent to work together.

On 27 October, President Kagame met members of the coalition at Urugwiro Village in Kigali. Kotani Pay CEO Felix Macharia was part of the conversation. However, the story goes back much further. The company began with a pilot in Nairobi’s informal settlements.

The problem that started it all

Kotani Pay’s story begins around 2018. Its founders were educators teaching people in Nairobi about blockchain. However, they kept running into the same wall. Africans pay through mobile money, and mobile money could not talk to the blockchain.

The pilot made the problem impossible to ignore. For example, participants received digital money they could not spend. As a result, many turned to a local agent to swap it for cash. That, in turn, made the agent a target.

The founders’ answer was simple. They would let people move from blockchain to Kenya shillings, and back again, using the mobile money they already trusted. That way, people could spend digital money in their local economy.

Small phones, big idea

Next, the team built an SMS wallet for basic feature phones, with support from the UNICEF Office of Innovation. A user could dial a code, see the funds they had received and convert them to local currency. Pilots then ran in Kenya and Ghana, mostly with people living in refugee camps.

The wallet later grew into something bigger. Today, Kotani Pay gives businesses a single API to local payment rails, and it says it reaches more than 15 African markets. In its model, called the “stablecoin sandwich”, fiat comes first, stablecoin sits in the middle and fiat closes the payment.

Inside the coalition

The coalition is convened by Equity Group and AfricaNenda Foundation, with support from the Gates Foundation. Dr Mwangi of Equity Group Holdings and Dr Ochola of AfricaNenda Foundation lead it. Its goal is to speed up interoperable digital infrastructure across Africa. To do that, it brings private-sector leadership and investment together.

Interoperable simply means payment systems that can work with each other. So for a trader or a business, that can mean fewer hurdles when money has to cross a border, a currency or a provider.

Kotani Pay received an official invitation to join. Macharia then took his place alongside Dr Mwangi and Dr Ochola.

A conversation at Urugwiro Village

According to the Presidency, the talks focused on three priorities. First, they looked at strengthening collaboration on interoperable digital payment systems. Second, they covered expanding financial inclusion. Finally, they discussed the economic integration needed for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

After the coalition’s inaugural roundtable, Kotani Pay says it was honoured to join closed-door discussions with the President. Those talks covered the same priorities.

Why Kotani Pay’s seat at the table matters

The company’s own view is clear. As African markets become more connected, interoperability will matter more. That includes links between digital assets, local payment systems and financial institutions. Kotani Pay also says it is grateful to contribute to the conversation and to support a “more connected African digital economy”.

The bigger picture is just as clear. AfCFTA depends on money moving quickly and affordably between markets. For example, a small trader may be importing goods, or a company may be paying suppliers. Therefore, it matters that a Nairobi-built company, which began by solving a very local problem, now has a voice in how the continent’s payments infrastructure takes shape.

The person at the table

Macharia is the CEO and co-founder of Kotani Pay. According to the organisers of Africa Stablecoin Summit 2026, he has more than a decade of experience in blockchain, regulation and financial infrastructure. He is also a featured speaker at the summit. Before this, he served as a researcher at the Institute of Blockchain Studies, co-trustee of ADAF and co-founder of EOS Nairobi.

Part of the Nairobi Garage community

As a Nairobi Garage member, Kotani Pay is part of a community of businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators working across different industries.

Today, its journey runs from a feature-phone wallet to a seat in the room where Africa’s payments future is being discussed. That makes it a member success story worth celebrating. It’s this kind of progress we love highlighting through Member News. In every story, we celebrate the people and businesses in our community, the work they’re doing and the impact they’re making beyond our spaces.

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