Cantor8 said it has entered exclusive MOUs with Yiksi Limited to move major African mobile money systems including M-PESA and EVC Plus onchain. The plan also includes direct conversion between digital money services and crypto through blockchain rails, with the initial deployment tied to Taran App and its exchange infrastructure on the Canton Network.
The company described the arrangement as a pilot for a wider rollout across more African countries and mobile money ecosystems. The immediate focus is clear: use mobile-first financial rails that already dominate daily payments in parts of East Africa, then connect them to blockchain-based settlement and interoperability layers rather than waiting for traditional banking infrastructure to catch up.
Mobile money already fills the banking gap in Kenya and Somalia
The source material points to weak bank access as a major reason mobile money became central in both Kenya and Somalia. In Somalia, the US State Department’s 2025 Investment Climate Statement puts formal banking penetration at just 15%, citing branch scarcity and strict identification requirements. Mobile money stepped into that gap.
EVC Plus now serves as a core part of Somalia’s day-to-day economy. Mobile money usage there exceeds 87% of the population, and Hormuud serves nearly 5 million users, most of whom rely on EVC Plus for routine transactions. Kenya shows a similar pattern at larger scale. As of 2025, about 85% of Kenyan adults had access to financial services through digital platforms such as M-PESA, and several estimates in the source place M-PESA’s share of mobile money transaction value in Kenya at well above 90%.
High phone connectivity gives the project a ready-made user base
Phone access is the other major pillar behind the rollout strategy. Somalia’s mobile penetration has reached nearly 60%, with 11.5 million connections growing at an annual rate of 7%. Kenya is even denser: by late 2025, SIM subscriptions had climbed to 78.4 million, equal to a penetration rate of about 149.5%, or roughly 1.5 SIMs per person.
Those figures explain why Cantor8 is treating mobile channels as the practical entry point for digital money infrastructure. In the company’s framing, moving these systems onchain could improve interoperability, settlement speed and cross-border connectivity while building on payment habits that are already deeply embedded.
Canton Network is positioned as the settlement and privacy layer
Cantor8 said it will use its C8 Registry token issuance engine to bring mobile money directly onto Canton Network rails. The release highlights three features: atomic settlement, compliant privacy and interoperability. Atomic settlement would allow transfers and related actions to complete instantly in a single transaction, cutting in-transit risk and reducing operational overhead for providers.
On privacy, the company contrasts Canton with public blockchains that expose historical transaction data. It says Canton can shield sensitive details such as counterparties, balances and timing while still creating tamper-proof audit trails for authorized regulators and auditors. For interoperability, the network uses a “network-of-networks” model in which institutions maintain separate ledgers that can still interact through the Global Synchronizer.
The broader aim is a pan-African payment system
Cantor8 says putting systems like M-PESA and EVC Plus onchain would let users move and use funds across countries and merchants without going through long and higher-risk conversion processes. The release also says an interoperable mobile money framework could give users broader access to stable, USD-denominated digital money.
The stated end goal is a continent-wide payment system that addresses uneven banking infrastructure and links African economies more efficiently. For now, the company has announced the exclusive Yiksi arrangement and the pilot structure involving Taran App. The original article also notes that the piece was distributed as a press release for informational purposes.