Shiga Digital

Shiga Digital is an on-chain banking and stablecoin settlement platform built to give African businesses a compliant, blockchain-native alternative to the informal currency networks that have long dominated cross-border trade on the continent.

The Problem Shiga Addresses

Africa's $100 billion annual cross-border payment gap is not purely a volume problem — it is a structural one. Mid-sized African businesses that need to pay overseas suppliers, access foreign exchange, or protect treasury from local currency devaluation have historically relied on costly intermediaries, opaque parallel forex markets, and correspondent banking chains that can take days to settle. Shiga replaces these rails with stablecoin wallets as the primary account unit, settling on public blockchains and connecting to fiat at either end through licensed local partners.

Core Mechanism

Rather than layering stablecoins on top of conventional banking infrastructure, Shiga has built a blockchain-native core banking layer. Stablecoin balances function as primary accounts, and all settlement occurs on-chain. Users interact through a web platform or iOS and Android mobile applications; Shiga handles the fiat on-ramp and off-ramp connections in each local market through partnerships with licensed financial transmitters.

The platform supports five blockchain networks: Celo, Ethereum, Polygon PoS, Solana, and Stellar. Solana's combination of high transaction throughput and low per-transaction cost makes it a practical settlement layer for the high-frequency, low-margin stablecoin flows that characterize cross-border business payments, particularly for USDT and USDC — both of which have significant native liquidity on Solana.

Products

Pulse is Shiga's B2B settlement engine, designed for platforms and enterprises. It provides virtual accounts for receiving funds in local currencies, over-the-counter (OTC) services for block liquidity, treasury management tools, and foreign exchange conversion. Through Pulse, an enterprise client can accept payments across 18 African countries and disburse in local currencies or stablecoins through a single integration. Businesses can convert local currency to USDT to protect against devaluation, then settle with international suppliers who increasingly accept stablecoins directly — removing the correspondent banking leg entirely.

Documented use cases include oil and gas companies purchasing stablecoins at transparent on-chain rates to settle with suppliers who accept USDT directly, and real estate developers accessing foreign currencies — USD, EUR, Chinese Yuan, UAE Dirhams — without traditional intermediaries.

Enta is Shiga's consumer-facing wallet, currently in beta. It lets individuals hold, send, and spend USDT (Tether's dollar stablecoin), XAUT (Tether's gold-backed stablecoin), and Bitcoin. Access is secured by a device passkey rather than a seed phrase, lowering the barrier for users unfamiliar with self-custody conventions. Enta targets the segment of African consumers who want dollar-denominated savings and payments without holding a US bank account.

Key Stablecoins

USDT is Shiga's primary settlement asset, a position reinforced by Tether's strategic investment in the company. The platform also supports USDC through its Circle Alliance partnership, enabling fiat-to-USDC conversion (Portal In) and USDC-to-fiat disbursement (Portal Out) via virtual accounts denominated in GBP, EUR, and USD.

Backing and Regulatory Standing

Tether made a strategic investment in Shiga Digital in June 2025, citing a shared belief that access to stable, secure, and scalable financial tools should not be a privilege. The round also includes backing from DFS Labs. Tether's participation carries operational weight beyond capital: it deepens Shiga's USDT liquidity access and reinforces the platform's positioning as a primary USDT distribution layer for African businesses.

On the regulatory front, Shiga holds a Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP) license in the European Union and a DIFC Innovation License from the Dubai Financial Services Authority, the regulator governing the Dubai International Financial Centre. It also completed Cohort 4 of the Visa Accelerator Program – Africa, one of a limited number of fintechs selected for the program in the region.

Team and Background

Shiga Digital was co-founded by Abiola Shogbeni (CEO) and Dami Etomi (COO). The company was incorporated in 2023 and operates across 15 or more countries, with its regulatory footprint spanning the European Union and the UAE.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Shiga's inclusion of Solana as a settlement chain is consistent with the network's position as the second-largest chain by USDC supply and a major destination for USDT transfers. For African businesses making repeated stablecoin payments, Solana's near-instant finality and sub-cent transaction fees reduce friction that would otherwise compound across high transaction volumes. Shiga acts as a managed on/off-ramp layer that abstracts chain selection from the end user while preserving the cost and speed advantages that Solana provides to the settlement layer.