Breaking Borders: Noah and Payd Partner to Bring Dollar-Native Salaries to 30,000+ African Digital Workers

The future of work is already here: talent is distributed, but opportunity shouldn't be.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, a digital labor revolution is underway. From developers in Lagos to virtual assistants in Cape Town, a new generation of professionals is plugging into the global economy. But while they can work for anyone, anywhere, getting paid remains a slow, expensive, and frustrating battle against an outdated banking system.

Today, we are thrilled to announce a strategic partnership between Noah and Payd to dismantle these barriers.

By integrating Noah’s regulated payment infrastructure into Payd’s "financial operating system," we are launching a solution that gives Payd’s 30,000 active users - and millions more across the continent - instant, low-cost access to their international earnings.

Africa is the world’s youngest continent, projected to host the largest global workforce by 2040. As remote work normalizes, African talent is experiencing a "brain gain"—living locally but earning globally.

However, the financial rails haven't kept up. A freelancer in Nairobi or Dakar earning $1,000 often faces a "Payroll Paradox":

• The Cost: Losing up to 8-10% of income to "lifting fees," correspondent bank charges, and bad exchange rates.
• The Wait: Waiting 2 to 5 business days for SWIFT wires to clear, often with zero transparency.
• The Risk: Forced currency conversions that expose earnings to local inflation immediately upon receipt.

Current solutions are either too expensive (legacy banks), too risky (P2P markets), or too limited (payment processors that don’t allow withdrawals).

Together, Noah and Payd are solving this by replacing slow banking correspondents with instant stablecoin infrastructure.

Here is how it works:

1. Get a Global Account: Inside the Payd app, users generate a unique Virtual IBAN (EUR) or US Routing Number (USD) provided by Noah.
2. **Get Paid Like a Local: **The user shares these details with their US or European employer. The employer sends a standard domestic transfer (ACH or SEPA).
3. Instant Settlement: As soon as the funds hit the virtual account, Noah’s infrastructure instantly converts them to stablecoins (USDC/USDT) and settles them into the user’s Payd wallet.
4. You Choose: The user receives the full value instantly. They can hold the digital dollars to hedge against inflation, spend online, or off-ramp to local currency only when they need to.

Pricing Note: This seamless global access costs users significantly less than the industry standard of 3-8%.

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It is tailored to the unique regulatory and economic realities of Africa’s biggest digital markets:

Kenya: Speeding Up the "Silicon Savannah"

Kenyan freelancers are often stuck paying high minimum fees for wire transfers or losing value on PayPal withdrawals. With Payd x Noah, they can receive USD and off-ramp directly to M-Pesa in minutes, not days, bypassing the high spreads of traditional bank corridors.

Nigeria: Bypassing the Bottlenecks

For Nigerian professionals, opening a "Domiciliary Account" (USD account) is notoriously difficult, requiring guarantors and high minimums. This partnership effectively democratizes access to USD accounts. Users can receive dollars without the banking bureaucracy and convert to Naira at market-reflective rates, avoiding the liquidity crunches of the local banking sector.

South Africa: Simplified Compliance

South African remote workers often face strict exchange controls and administrative burdens when receiving foreign funds. By receiving funds into a virtual account and repatriating them only when necessary, Payd simplifies the compliance process and offers a cheaper alternative to the high SWIFT fees charged by major SA banks.

Senegal: Bridging the Gap to Europe

Senegal’s freelancers, who frequently work with French and EU clients, have historically been underserved by Anglophone fintechs. The addition of Virtual EUR accounts allows for seamless SEPA transfers from the Eurozone. These funds can be instantly converted and moved to local mobile money wallets like Wave or Orange Money, solving the "receiving problem" in West Africa.

This partnership is more than just a tech integration; it is about economic sovereignty. It ensures that an engineer in Lagos or a designer in Nairobi can compete on the global stage without being taxed by their geography.