Most financial inclusion discussions about Africa begin with flawed assumptions. The issue extends beyond expensive or slow banking. Functioning banking infrastructure simply does not exist in forms suitable for cross-border commerce across much of the continent.
A logistics company operating across Europe, the US, and Africa exemplifies this challenge. They require receiving payments in Naira, settling in EUR, and transferring funds across jurisdictions without multi-day delays or margin-depleting fees. Obtaining a bank account supporting these operations represents a structural impossibility rather than a paperwork challenge.
Similarly, individuals in Nigeria or Ghana holding physical US dollars do so not from banking distrust, but because bank accounts restrict dollar withdrawals and governments have historically mandated local currency conversion. The informal dollar economy across Africa remains enormous, driven by the need for reliable value storage rather than cash preference.
What Shiga Built
Shiga provides self-custodial stablecoin accounts functioning anywhere, offering bank-like features and cross-border transfers without correspondent banking intermediaries. Users convert between stablecoins and local fiat currencies while avoiding traditional banking restrictions.
The self-custody distinction proves critical. With custodial products, companies hold keys and can freeze accounts or comply with seizure orders. For users accustomed to institutional unreliability, this approach replicates rather than improves existing risks.
Shiga’s self-custodial model ensures users retain control. No external entity can freeze accounts or compel fund access. That is the baseline requirement for this market segment.
Onyx, a global logistics company conducting trade across Africa, Europe, and the Americas, illustrates this application. Previously facing rapid currency depreciation on African holdings and expensive international transfers, Onyx now receives payments in multiple currencies, converts automatically to preferred settlement currency, and transfers funds without intermediaries through Shiga’s virtual, multichain accounts.
Gas Abstraction Is a Market Access Problem
A critical implementation detail often underestimated by builders: Shiga users hold USDT, not ETH.
This represents no edge case. Stablecoin adoption across Africa stems from maintaining dollar-denominated value. Most users view ETH as speculative. Requiring ETH acquisition solely for gas fees introduces complexity, cost, and volatile asset exposure to a product meant to simplify banking alternatives. Such requirements typically end user adoption.
Shiga addressed this at infrastructure level rather than UX layer. Users pay gas in USDT. their existing asset. Certain flows feature entirely sponsored gas, with users experiencing transactions rather than fees.
For builders, this distinction carries weight. Within mature markets, gas abstraction enhances quality of life. In emerging markets where users lack native tokens and avoid acquiring them, gas abstraction determines whether products function. For developers building for stablecoin-holding populations without ETH, gas abstraction becomes mandatory rather than optional.
The Infrastructure Layer
Candide supplies the bundler and paymaster infrastructure powering Shiga’s smart accounts.
The bundler processes ERC-4337 UserOperations. the standard smart account transaction format. The paymaster manages gas by accepting USDT payments or sponsoring transactions entirely. Since both adhere to ERC-4337 standards, they integrate with any compliant SDK. Shiga leveraged Tether’s WDK (Wallet Development Kit), connecting directly to this standardized infrastructure without proprietary lock-in or custom integration requirements. The stack features composable-by-design architecture.
Self-custody emerges from identical architecture. No custodial key management exists at the infrastructure layer. Candide processes transactions without holding keys. User wallets remain user-controlled.
For Shiga, this meant integrating production-grade smart account infrastructure without stack reconstruction or proprietary system adoption. Bundler and paymaster components integrated directly into the already-employed SDK layer.
Africa’s Informal Dollar Economy Is Going Onchain
The underlying macro trend remains unmistakable. Across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and the continent, individuals and businesses already maintain dollar-denominated value outside banking systems through physical cash, informal transfers, and peer-to-peer exchange networks. Decades-old demand for stable, accessible, portable value storage now meets digital infrastructure capacity.
Stablecoin accounts represent the natural transition destination. Three conditions prove essential for functioning as banking replacements: accounts must be self-custodial, gas visibility should disappear for users holding stablecoins rather than ETH, and infrastructure must integrate composably with existing builder tools.
Shiga demonstrates all three remain possible today. Accounts function, gas models work, and infrastructure integrates with standard SDKs.
The infrastructure for Africa’s financial transition is being built now. If you’re working on something similar, Candide documentation is at docs.candide.dev. For the WDK integration layer, see docs.wdk.tether.io.