Grey

Grey emerged from a straightforward problem faced by African freelancers and remote workers: receiving money from abroad was often slow, expensive and difficult to navigate. The company was founded by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo, initially under the name Aboki Africa, before formally rebranding to Grey in 2022 to reflect the broader range of international financial services it was building.

Cross-border banking remains at the centre of the Grey proposition. The platform currently provides users with US, UK and EU bank accounts, a virtual dollar card and tools for sending and receiving international payments, designed particularly for freelancers, remote workers, students and digital nomads.

Grey's user base has grown alongside its expansion. In August 2024, the company announced it had crossed one million users, having reached 500,000 users in November 2023. More recently, Grey's international money-transfer page states that three million people across more than 80 countries trust Grey to move their money.

Grey has therefore carved out a position that is somewhat different from the consumer banking and payment brands elsewhere in this ranking. Its core proposition is not primarily everyday banking in naira, but the movement of money between countries and currencies, built around the increasingly international nature of work among African freelancers and remote workers.