Goodbye MFS Africa, Hello Onafriq

“Ile lawo ka fu so man loruko …”

Earlier this week, we announced that MFS Africa is becoming Onafriq! And while the congratulations and words of encouragement are rolling in, the obvious question on everyone’s mind is: why?

The answer to that question is three-fold.

Firstly, for a very practical reason: we had to.

Our vision is to make borders matter less and connect Africans and African businesses to each other and the world. As we continued to expand our services globally in line with that vision, we started running into several other companies using “MFS” in their brands. When we announced the GTP acquisition in the USA last year, the struggles of using the name MFS Africa there intensified. The trademark MFS actually belongs to another company in the US — the OG MFS, so to speak. They have been defending it vigorously since the 1920s. Continuing to expand globally under these conditions was going to be increasingly challenging. And, by now, the name MFS Africa started feeling a bit like that shirt you absolutely love, but that has become too tight…

Earlier this year, we decided to turn this setback into an opportunity — a rare chance to go back and right a wrong.

Secondly, because I picked MFS Africa initially for the wrong reasons.

Picking a company’s name is a funny business. For those of you who read Shoe Dog, you would remember the long hours that Phil Knight and his teams spent to finally land on the name Nike. In my case, when I was incorporating the company in 2009, choosing the name took me a grand total of 10 minutes. I had just left MTN, and I knew their name stood for the uninspiring “Mobile Telephone Network”. Yet they went on to become the continental giant and very inspiring company they are today. So, I didn’t think the name would matter that much, and I was entirely practical about it: I wanted the scope to broadly be about mobile-based financial services and the focus to be Africa. That’s how we came to be known as MFS Africa.

Over the years, I would have long and short arguments with Filip, who would point out all the flaws in the name and offer well-articulated points as to why we should at least “drop the ‘Africa’” as it surely limited our ambitions. To which Rachel would generally respond that American Express didn’t become Express when it went to Asia. All that was amusing as far as I was concerned; the name debate had been closed since 2009… until it wasn’t.

Thirdly, because names reflect destinies.

In my culture, when a child is born, we don’t rush to name them. We wait, we observe, and we reflect. Seven days, to be exact. It is a time-honoured tradition, a pause to ensure the name chosen resonates deeply, reflects the house the child comes from and — it is believed — supports the child’s destiny. It is summarised in the timeless Yoruba proverb: Ile lawo ka fu so man loruko. Translated literally, it means: “It is by looking at their house that you can appropriately name the child”.

But the proverb’s real message is that names matter and cannot be random. And when we had the opportunity to go back and apply the same thoughtful considerations to the teenager that MFS Africa has become, we couldn’t pick a random name. It had to be a name that reflects our mission, our evolution, and our vision for the future.

And that is how Onafriq came about.

What it means

Inspired by the words “ona” (Yoruba for pathway, road, canal or passage) and “afriq” (derived from “Afrique”, French for Africa, while also cueing our collective knowledge or IQ), the name Onafriq echoes our promise to partners and customers: a continent where new paths and new ways of accessing payments are opened up for the benefit of all.

In a fragmented payments landscape, where exclusion and complexity continue to hinder the free flow of transactions and ideas, we provide people access to a single, unobstructed route. One that swiftly and seamlessly connects all others, unlocking the full power of cross-border and cross-platform interoperability for people across our continent and beyond.

At the same time, Onafriq calls to mind the idea of One Africa, an interconnected borderless continent where access unlocks greater potential.

This time, when we finally announced the new name, it felt right. It does reflect our destiny: to become the One payment network of networks that truly brings about the One Africa that Africans, African businesses, and the whole world have been calling for.

But as we change our name, I want to keep our promises and renew them here:

Our promise to care deeply about what we are building, the people we are building it for, and about who we are in that process.

Our promise to simplify and remove frictions from cross-border payment across the continent.

Our promise to be tenacious in the face of adversity and setbacks and to not rest until the job is done.

Our promise to be revolutionary along the way by inventing ways where there are none and finding new ways where the old ones are no longer suitable.

And above all, our promise to make borders matter less when it comes to payment to, from and within Africa.

These have been and will continue to be our north star and values. This is why it all started, and it was destiny that we would find the right name along the way. Here we are now, as Onafriq.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all for the cheers and the kind words. From the beginning, your support, whether expressed as harsh criticism or just a pat on the back, has been the wind that keeps pushing us. Please don’t change that either. In this mission to change Africa for the better, we need all the help we can get.

Here’s to overcoming barriers by connecting all Africans to each other. To the global digital economy. To opportunities. To more ways. To better ways. To prosperity. To Onafriq.

Much love

Dare