BMONI wants to redefine finance for young Africans using stablecoins and biometric technology

On October 13, 2025, in a packed event at Ox Lagos, a new financial player officially stepped onto the stage. The launch of BMONI marked not just another entry into Nigeria’s supposedly crowded fintech scene but an ambitious attempt to rewrite how Africans interact with money.

Backed by AI, stablecoins and biometric technology, BMONI is positioning itself as the bridge between everyday Africans and a more open, global financial system. Its promise is seamless multi-currency accounts, easy access to USD savings, fast cross-border transfers, and Mastercard debit cards that work in over 100 million locations worldwide.

But this launch is not just about technology. It is about timing, context and trust. These are the three forces reshaping Nigeria’s fintech story. By 2024, Nigeria’s electronic payments had exceeded ₦1 quadrillion according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System. Stablecoin transactions alone crossed $22 billion in a single year, placing the country among the fastest-growing stablecoin markets globally.

More than 25 million Nigerians now use digital asset platforms to move, save and spend. Yet, trust remains the hardest currency to build. Nigerians are quick to adopt technology but just as quick to abandon products that do not deliver security and reliability.

This is the landscape BMONI is entering – a fertile but fiercely competitive space, with over 430 active fintech players already in the ring.

“We didn’t build this to compete with banks”

For Jorn Iyseggen, Founder of BMONI, the company’s story begins not with competition but with conviction.

“We’re building BMONI as an African solution for Africans. Too many platforms are built elsewhere and forced on us. We want to build financial tools that understand how people here actually live and move money,” he said in a conversation with Technext.

Iyseggen sees BMONI not as just another fintech app but as a response to a gap the traditional banking system has failed to close. “We didn’t build BMONI to compete with banks,” he explained. “We built it to give people what banks haven’t – speed, access, and freedom.”

That freedom is baked into the product. BMONI offers USD and naira wallets, fast swaps between currencies, smart transfers and cross-border payments without the friction many Nigerians have learned to endure.

“Young professionals are earning in multiple currencies, working across borders, and saving in dollars,” Iyseggen added. “That’s a reality the financial system should meet, not resist.”

This reality is what makes stablecoins critical to their strategy. With the naira under pressure, more Nigerians are using dollar-pegged digital assets to store value. Iyseggen believes BMONI is simply making an existing behaviour more secure and seamless.

“The stablecoin story is no longer theoretical,” he said. “Nigerians are already living it daily. We’re simply giving them a smarter and safer way to do it.” Freelancers and small businesses are among those feeling the pinch the most. “If we can simplify cross-border payments for freelancers, SMEs and everyday Nigerians, we’ve already solved half of the problem,” he added.

“If the product doesn’t build trust at first touch, we’ve failed”

While Iyseggen shapes the vision, Ashwin Ravichandran, BMONI’s Head of Product, obsesses over execution.

“When we looked at stablecoin adoption numbers, it was obvious Nigerians were already ahead of the curve,” he said. “So we built a product that makes that experience simple and compliant.” Ashwin understands why fintech apps lose users after their first few transactions.

“Most users don’t want to spend hours learning how a fintech app works,” he noted. “They want a seamless, smart experience that just works.” The product strategy leans heavily on biometrics and AI.

“Biometrics and AI are not gimmicks for us,” he said. “They are the foundation of how we build trust at scale.” In a market where many users have experienced scams, frozen accounts or unreliable platforms, this foundation is crucial. “If the product doesn’t build trust at first touch, we’ve failed,” Ashwin added.

BMONI’s approach is deliberately simple. It avoids the temptation of building a super app, focusing instead on fixing everyday problems. “Freelancers want to get paid without friction. Businesses want to store value without losing sleep. Young people want to access the world with one wallet,” Ashwin explained.

For him, technology works best when it disappears into the background. “The magic happens when tech disappears,” he said. “Users shouldn’t need to understand blockchain to feel secure.”

This is why every feature is built to be practical. “Every feature has to answer one question,” he said. “Does this make money movement easier, faster, or safer?”

This clarity extends to how they think about trust. “Our biometric technology isn’t about just unlocking an app,” Ashwin said. “It’s about creating trust loops between the platform and the user.”

Iyseggen reinforces the same point from a founder’s lens. “People don’t just want another fintech app,” he stressed. “They want an experience that gives them actual control over their money. Trust is everything.”

BMONI’s ambitions go beyond Nigeria. The team envisions a platform that connects Africans to the global economy while retaining local relevance. “This is not just a launch,” Iyseggen said. “It’s a signal that African innovation can lead global financial conversations.”

“We want users to feel like BMONI isn’t just a platform,” he added. “It’s a passport to a bigger financial world.” But that journey won’t be easy. Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem is crowded and noisy. Standing out requires precision.

“Nigeria’s fintech space is intense,” Ashwin admitted. “The only way to stand out is to actually solve something, not just make noise.”

BMONI’s bet is that trust, simplicity, and global access will be their differentiators. “Fintech in Nigeria is crowded, but few are solving for trust and real access,” Iyseggen said. “That’s our lane.”

The launch of BMONI mirrors Nigeria’s fintech journey itself, a story of friction and resilience. Nigerians embrace innovation not for novelty but for survival. As stablecoins, AI and biometric technology shape the next wave of digital finance, platforms that can earn trust will rise above the noise.

BMONI is wagering that it can be one of them.

“When a user says, ‘this just works,’ that’s the highest compliment we can get as a product team,” Ashwin said.

Whether that trust translates into market dominance cannot be determined at the moment.