Solutions

What we do, and how it settles

Five service lines running on one settlement engine. Each is described below with who it is for, how the money actually moves, and what determines the timing.

01

FX Liquidity

We price and fill foreign exchange for businesses whose costs and revenues sit in different currencies. A bank quotes a rate and a broker goes looking for one; we hold inventory in both legs, so a client gets a firm price and a settlement time in the same conversation.

Pairs
USD/NGNUSD/GHSGBPEURUSDTUSDC
Who it is for
Importers and exporters with foreign-currency obligations, corporates managing FX exposure, and payment companies that need local-currency cover against an offshore balance.
How it settles
Bank to bank in each leg, through our own accounts in each market. Same day to T+1.
What you get
Two-way pricing, firm quotes in size, and a single counterparty instead of a chain of brokers each taking a spread.

02

Cross-Border Settlement

Corridor settlement for businesses paying and being paid across borders — supplier invoices, import cover, payroll and treasury movement between our markets and the rest of the world. The value of a corridor is not the transfer; it is knowing when the funds land.

Corridors
Nigeria and Ghana in both directions, with onward settlement into the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union and China.
Who it is for
Corporates paying overseas suppliers, payment service providers needing a settlement partner in the region, and businesses that need a predictable date rather than a best-efforts wire.
How it settles
Direct banking and settlement relationships in each market, rather than a chain of correspondents. Same day to T+1.
Controls
Counterparty onboarding, sanctions and PEP screening, and transaction monitoring apply to every corridor before a first payment is made.

03

Stablecoin On & Off-Ramp

Conversion between USDT or USDC and local currency, with the fiat leg settling through our own accounts. Digital assets are a settlement rail here, not a speculative product — they close the gap between a payment instruction and cleared funds.

Assets
USDTUSDC
Against
NGNGHSUSD
Who it is for
Businesses already holding stablecoin balances, exchanges and payment companies that need a reliable local-currency leg, and treasurers managing settlement timing across time zones.
How it settles
The onchain leg is confirmed and the fiat leg is paid from a Cowrie account. No third-party custodian sits between the two, which is what removes a day from the cycle.

04

Remittances

Inbound transfers to Nigeria and Ghana under our Central Bank of Nigeria International Money Transfer Operator licence — delivered to bank accounts and mobile wallets, at a rate the recipient can check against the market.

Licence
CBN International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO).
Delivery
Bank accounts and mobile wallets in Nigeria and Ghana.
Who it is for
Partners originating remittance flow into the region, and businesses making recurring payments to individuals in our markets.
How it settles
Same day to T+1 to the beneficiary, with the funding leg netted against our local-currency position rather than pre-funded transfer by transfer.

05

Value-Added Services

Airtime, data and telecoms aggregation under our Nigerian Communications Commission Value-Added Services licence. This is the business we have operated continuously since 2015 — and the distribution reach and daily reconciliation discipline it demanded are what the payments business now runs on.

Licence
NCC Value-Added Services (VAS).
Services
Airtime and data distribution, telecoms aggregation, and bulk top-up for corporate and dealer networks.
Who it is for
Dealers, retailers and platforms distributing telecoms value at scale across Nigeria.
Operating since
2015.

Getting started

Three steps to a first settlement

No client is onboarded faster than the compliance work allows. What we can promise is that you will know where you stand at each stage rather than waiting on silence.

1. Onboarding

Know-your-business documentation, beneficial ownership, sanctions and PEP screening, and the source-of-funds picture for the flow you intend to run.

2. Limits and pricing

We agree the corridors, the currencies, the settlement pattern and the exposure limits that apply, so both sides know the shape of the relationship before value moves.

3. Go live

A first settlement at modest size to prove the operational path end to end, then scale into the agreed limits with a named contact on the desk.

Risk & compliance

The unglamorous part we take seriously

Every service line above sits inside a Board-approved enterprise risk management framework covering market and foreign-exchange risk, liquidity, counterparty credit, digital-asset risk, financial crime and new-product approval.

  • Counterparty onboarding, screening and periodic review
  • Position, exposure and settlement limits set per product and per counterparty
  • Daily reconciliation of every account and settlement rail
  • Transaction monitoring and escalation into a defined committee structure
A transaction passing through onboarding, screening, limit and reconciliation controls

Next step

Tell us the corridor and the size

Those two facts are usually enough for us to say what is possible, what it would cost and how quickly it could settle.

Contact us About Cowrie