(Ugochukwu Aronu, founder and CEO of Xend Finance / Nodo News)

Xend Finance, a Lagos-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, is set to launch Africa’s first digital wallet extension by the end of March. Dubbed MadWallet, the extension is expected offer faster and safer web browser routes to DeFi wallets.

It is supported by blockchain-based browser Brave as well as Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera, according to Ugochukwu Aronu, founder and CEO of the startup.

Aronu, a 29-year-old electronics engineer graduate, intimates that Africa should not only contribute to the web3 industry as consumers but as producers of technology, such as wallet extensions and Web3 infrastructure.

“We have delved into building very advanced Web3 technology from day one,” he told Nodo News in an interview in Lagos. “We are the only African startup that has this extension.”

Xend Finance, which is backed by global crypto exchange Binance and Google Launchpad, regards itself as a blockchain banking application for Africa. It enables users to save in stablecoins and earn attractive interest on their funds.

The platform also offers crosschain transfers to enable users to buy and sell tokens throughout different blockchain platforms. Xend Bridge offers peer-to-peer eliminating the middlemen as normal exchange platforms.

Extending DeFi Solutions for Nigeria

Xend Finance began building smart contracts in 2019. The startup worked with cooperative societies in Nigeria, giving them access to decentralized finance products, Aronu says.

“As of today, we probably have more than like 10 or 20 credit unions that we’re working with.” Aronu also revealed that Xend Finance has about 150,000 individual users.

The devaluation of the naira against the dollar has been pushing more users to the platform since the end of 2020. Currently, the platform manages about $3 million for its clients.

According to data on its site, Xend Bridge has accumulated over $15 million worth of buy and sell orders, covering over 200,000 users.

“A lot of people realized that our early users had gained more than 100% by hedging against inflation on our platform,” Aronu said. “Our platform also gives interest rates based on the yield that we get from the DeFi protocol.”

He adds: “As the naira is losing value, it’s affecting businesses as well. Having access to forex is really difficult. But we can leverage the blockchain to help them propagate or handle transactions overseas or offshore.”

The move has also attracted a lot of business clients to Xend Finance.

Xend Finance to the World

Aronu’s ambition for Xend Finance eclipses the current financial challenges both in Nigeria and the early global recession.

He says the company aims to have about $100 million under management by the end of 2023. This will be achieved by ramping up the cooperative acquisition to between 100 to 200.

“We are looking to have about 300,000 to 500,000 individual customers this year,” he projects.

Edited by Faustine Ngila