While headlines about the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are often dominated by conflict in the east and political uncertainty, a quieter and more consequential story is unfolding beneath the noise, one about infrastructure, inclusion, and long-term belief in Africa’s largest untapped market.
Even as uncertainty gives some investors pause, pan-African fintech giant Onafriq is doing the opposite. It is expanding.
For Onafriq, the decision to deepen its presence in the DRC is not an act of optimizm, it is a calculated commitment to fundamentals. Payments. Interoperability. Access. The invisible systems that allow economies to function even when conditions are far from ideal.
“Challenges like affordability and financial sustainability are real,” said Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of Onafriq. “But transaction volumes are growing, partnerships are deepening, and more people are gaining access to financial services. That’s what matters for the long term.”
A Market Too Big to Ignore
The DRC is often described as difficult. It is also massive. With a population exceeding 100 million people and one of the lowest formal banking penetration rates in Africa, the country represents one of the continent’s largest financial inclusion opportunities.
Mobile money has become the real engine of access. As of the fourth quarter of 2024, the DRC had 29 million mobile money accounts, representing a penetration rate of roughly 34.6%. While not all accounts are active, the direction of travel is clear: digital finance is growing faster than traditional banking ever could.
This is where Onafriq comes in.
Operating in 43 African countries, connecting over 1 billion mobile wallets and 500 million bank accounts, Onafriq functions as a digital payments backbone rather than a consumer-facing app. Its value lies in interoperability, connecting wallets to wallets, wallets to banks, and increasingly, wallets to global card networks.
Why Infrastructure Matters More Than Headlines
In late 2025, Onafriq supported the launch of Visa Pay in the DRC, enabling large-scale interoperability between mobile money platforms and card networks. The move sent a quiet but powerful signal: global payment players see the DRC as investable when the right infrastructure is in place.
For Okoudjou, the motivation goes deeper than market size.
“The DRC is an underserved giant,” he said. “Getting payments infrastructure right matters for development. You see the impact in daily life, families become more stable, businesses survive shocks, and poverty is reduced incrementally.”
These outcomes rarely show up in quarterly investor decks. But in frontier markets, they are the real indicators of progress.
Onafriq is Betting on Systems not Short-Term Stability
Experts agree that the DRC should not be viewed as a single risk profile.
“DRC in its entirety is not written off,” said Foster Akugri, a business expansion specialist focused on Africa. “There is room to operate with calculated risk management. You need a player like Onafriq that connects everyone in the ecosystem.”
This view is echoed by Ryan Musser, program director at the Center for International Private Enterprise, who argues that Africa is too often framed through risk rather than opportunity.
“Providing financial services to the Congolese population is a massive opportunity,” Musser said. “Companies with a long-term perspective that can navigate instability will be rewarded.”
In the DRC, instability does not erase opportunity, it reshapes it. Formal banking remains weak. Mobile money adoption continues to rise. Interoperability is still early-stage. That combination creates an opening for infrastructure players.
As Akugri puts it: “DRC is late-cycle in mobile money adoption, but early-cycle in interoperability. Whoever wins that infrastructure layer wins the market.”
Regulation as an Enabler
Contrary to common perception, regulation has not been the main obstacle. Onafriq has worked closely with the Central Bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo and mobile operators to build systems suited to local realities.
“Offline capabilities matter when power goes out,” Okoudjou noted. “Real-time foreign exchange matters when currencies swing. Compliance has to meet both global standards and local needs.”
This collaborative approach reflects a broader shift across Africa, where regulators increasingly see fintech as a partner in inclusion rather than a threat to control.
A Long-Term Bet on Congo
Onafriq’s strategy in the DRC is not built for quick wins. It is built for endurance.
“If you’re looking for fast returns, these markets aren’t for you,” Okoudjou said. “But if you want to build something meaningful, you have to stay.”
In a country often defined by what goes wrong, Onafriq is focused on what quietly goes right: transactions processed, businesses paid, families supported, systems strengthened.
Amid conflict and chaos, Congo’s financial future is still being built line by line, transaction by transaction. And Onafriq is helping lay the rails.
