Klasha partners with LianLian Global for cross-border payments

This partnership opens new opportunities for Asian businesses to expand into the growing African market.

Details about the partnership

This collaboration allows Asian businesses to collect payments from African customers through Klasha’s platform and API. Merchants using LianLian Global’s services can receive payments in various African currencies and choose their preferred payout option.

This integration simplifies payments and ensures that businesses are well-positioned to provide a localised payment experience to African consumers, eliminating the complexities of currency conversion and transaction fees.

The combined strengths of Klasha and LianLian Global will enable businesses across Asia to leverage Africa’s expanding digital economy, which is projected to be valued at over USD 712 billion by 2025.

Projections for cross-border payments in Africa and Asia

Africa stands out as a focal point for cross-border payments anticipating a growth rate of 10% alongside Asia. The development of new technologies is key to enabling a higher percentage of individuals and businesses to participate in cross-border exchanges. The establishment of Open Banking standards and APIs is fostering interoperability among banks and financial institutions.

Future trends regarding cross-border payments in Africa include linking domestic real-time payment systems, increased traceability of transactions, fee transparency, and allowing instant payment schemes to become the channel for incoming international payments.

When it comes to China’s cross-border payments sector, there’s been significant growth with the General Administration of Customs reporting a trade volume of CNY 1.88 trillion in the first three quarters of 2024. This marks a YOY increase of 11.5%.

Despite this growth, 50% of businesses cite uncertainty in confirming payment receipts as a primary concern. Other issues included unpredictable transaction fees (45%), delays in transaction processing (44%), and risks related to fraud and dispute resolution.

In response to this, LianLian Global launched the Yueda Card in November 2024, to enable faster and more reliable payment processing. This launch aimed to reduce reliance on manual accounting and payment methods while improving efficiency and lowering operational costs.