Maplerad wins ‘Borderless Payments Provider of the Year’ at 2026 BAFI Awards

Maplerad, a financial technology company providing real-time payments infrastructure for businesses operating across African and international markets, has been named Borderless Payments Provider of the Year at the 2026 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards, one of Nigeria’s established industry recognition programmes for the banking and financial services sector.

The award was presented on Friday, October 9, 2026, at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos, during a ceremony attended by senior executives from banks, payment companies and other financial institutions, alongside regulators, policymakers and industry stakeholders. Marvin Ohanwe, Maplerad’s Head of Business Development and Sales, accepted the award on behalf of the company, representing its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Obinna Chukwujioke.

The recognition acknowledges Maplerad’s work in addressing one of Africa’s persistent financial infrastructure challenges: enabling businesses to move money efficiently across national borders despite fragmented currencies, payment systems, banking relationships and regulatory frameworks. Through its technology platform, Maplerad enables businesses to collect payments, make payouts, manage multiple currencies and settle cross-border transactions through infrastructure designed for modern financial services.

Organised by BusinessDay, Nigeria’s business-focused daily newspaper founded in 2001, the BAFI Awards recognise organisations and institutions operating across the country’s financial services ecosystem. The programme has recognised financial institutions annually since 2013, spanning banking, digital payments, insurance, asset management, trusteeship and other financial services.

The 2026 edition featured 57 award categories, including Bank of the Year, Digital Bank of the Year and awards recognising innovation, growth and performance among financial service providers. Previous honourees have included established institutions such as Zenith Bank, First Bank of Nigeria Holdings, United Bank for Africa, Mastercard, Central Securities Clearing System and FMDQ.

The awards are supported by the BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU). According to the award programme’s stated evaluation framework, institutions are assessed across four principal dimensions: financial growth, market innovation, corporate governance and service quality. These dimensions provide a framework for assessing performance and distinction across different segments of Nigeria’s financial services industry.

Maplerad’s selection as Borderless Payments Provider of the Year places the company among the organisations recognised in the programme for their contributions to financial services. The distinction is particularly significant in a market where payment infrastructure, foreign exchange accessibility and settlement efficiency remain important to the growth of cross-border commerce.

For businesses operating across Africa, moving money between neighbouring countries can be more complicated than sending payments to major international markets. Differences in national currencies, banking infrastructure, liquidity availability, settlement networks and local regulatory requirements create friction that can increase transaction costs and delay access to funds.

A business seeking to pay a supplier in another African market may encounter multiple intermediaries, additional foreign exchange conversions and settlement arrangements that were not designed for seamless regional commerce. These barriers affect businesses seeking to expand across borders, serve international customers and participate in regional supply chains.

Maplerad was built to help address these challenges by providing a unified infrastructure layer through which businesses can access payment and financial services across multiple markets.

In an interview with Nairametrics in June 2026, Obinna Chukwujioke, Maplerad co-founder and CEO, identified foreign exchange fragmentation and liquidity constraints as major obstacles to cross-border trade across Africa. He emphasised the importance of interoperability, describing it as central to connecting otherwise fragmented financial ecosystems.

Chukwujioke has also argued that harmonised standards and multi-currency settlement infrastructure are important to unlocking the commercial potential of initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area. His position reflects Maplerad’s broader approach: enabling businesses to operate across national borders without having to independently assemble the underlying financial infrastructure in every market.

Founded in 2022, Maplerad evolved from Wirepay, a consumer-focused cross-border payments application launched in 2020. As other businesses began seeking access to the technology powering Wirepay, the company shifted its focus towards providing infrastructure that other businesses could integrate into their own products.

That strategic transition established the foundation for Maplerad’s current business model. Rather than limiting its services to an end-user payments application, the company developed application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow businesses to embed financial capabilities directly into their operations and customer experiences.

Since inception, Maplerad has served more than 3,000 businesses and processed over US$500 million in transaction volume. Its infrastructure supports financial operations across more than 10 currencies and payments in over 20 countries, subject to the applicable product, corridor and service availability.

Through its platform, businesses can access multi-currency accounts, local and international collections and payouts, foreign exchange services, USD card issuance and stablecoin-enabled settlement. Supported stablecoins include USDT, USDC and PYUSD, depending on the relevant product and transaction arrangement.

The platform is designed to reduce the operational complexity of expanding into additional markets by allowing businesses to integrate multiple financial capabilities through a common technology layer instead of independently building or maintaining the underlying systems.

For businesses serving customers and counterparties across Africa and international markets, this model can help simplify financial operations, improve access to payment corridors and reduce the infrastructure burden associated with cross-border expansion.

Maplerad’s development reflects several strategic decisions under Chukwujioke’s leadership.

The first was the transition from a consumer payments application to business-facing financial infrastructure. By responding to demand from other businesses seeking access to Wirepay’s underlying technology, the company repositioned its capabilities to serve a wider ecosystem of businesses. The resulting platform now supports thousands of business customers.

The second was a focus on multi-currency access and regional payment connectivity. Rather than treating every cross-border transaction as a payment that must pass through the same international currency and intermediary network, Maplerad developed infrastructure intended to support collections, payouts and financial operations across multiple currencies and markets.

The third was the integration of stablecoin-enabled settlement into its broader payments offering. Stablecoins can facilitate the transfer and settlement of value across borders, while local collection and payout arrangements allow businesses to interact with customers and counterparties in their respective markets. Depending on the corridor and transaction, this approach can reduce settlement time compared with conventional correspondent-banking arrangements.

The company has also emphasised the importance of integrating compliance into financial technology products. Know-your-customer procedures, anti-money-laundering controls and transaction monitoring are important components of payment infrastructure operating across multiple jurisdictions. Their implementation must be tailored to applicable laws, licensing arrangements and partner requirements.

Together, these strategic choices have shaped Maplerad’s development from a consumer payments product into a financial infrastructure provider serving businesses with cross-border payment needs.

Chukwujioke’s approach to building Maplerad has centred on the premise that businesses should not have to navigate the full complexity of fragmented financial systems to serve customers across national borders.

“There is no such thing as a single African market,” Chukwujioke said. “Every country has its own currency, its own rules and its own way of paying. Our job is to make those differences invisible to the businesses building on us, so that a company in Lagos can serve customers in Nairobi or Abidjan as easily as it serves customers at home.”

The strategy reflects a broader ambition to make financial infrastructure more accessible to businesses that want to expand across Africa without recreating their payment operations in every market. By combining payment connectivity, currency management and settlement capabilities, Maplerad seeks to address the operational barriers that can constrain regional trade and business growth.

The company’s reported transaction volume and business reach provide measurable indicators of its operating scale. Its selection for the 2026 BAFI award adds an industry recognition dimension to that record, highlighting its position in the cross-border payments segment of Nigeria’s financial services market.

Maplerad’s Borderless Payments Provider of the Year award comes as businesses, financial institutions and policymakers continue to focus on improving payment interoperability and reducing the friction associated with cross-border commerce.

The distinction recognises a company whose services address practical challenges faced by businesses operating across multiple African markets. It also highlights the importance of the infrastructure layer underpinning modern financial services, including the systems that enable payments, foreign exchange and settlement to function across different currencies and jurisdictions.

For Maplerad, the award marks a milestone in its development as a financial infrastructure provider. Its reported service to more than 3,000 businesses and transaction volume exceeding US$500 million demonstrate the scale of its operations, while its technology-led approach positions the company to continue addressing the financial connectivity challenges confronting businesses across the continent.

As African businesses pursue opportunities beyond their home markets, the ability to move money reliably and efficiently remains essential to cross-border growth. Maplerad’s recognition at the 2026 BAFI Awards underscores the relevance of that challenge and the growing role of specialised payment infrastructure providers in addressing it.