Mansa X BeInCrypto AMA Session

In this interview, we spoke with Mouloukou Sanoh, Co-Founder and CEO of MANSA, about the company’s innovative liquidity solutions and how they are addressing key challenges in cross-border payments. Mouloukou shared insights on the role of stablecoins in transforming global payment systems and the future of real-time settlement capabilities.

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AMA Session With Mouloukou Sanoh of Wirex Pay

BeInCrypto: What inspired you to start MANSA, and what problem in global payments are you trying to solve? 

Mouloukou Sanoh: MANSA’s liquidity platform provides payments players with a revolving line of credit that enables payments players to instantly settle or fund their customers account, enabling better cash flow management at a lower cost. MANSA’s solution is integral to building a new type of market infrastructure that can enable true real-time settlement capabilities for the future of payments.

BIC: What are the biggest issues with cross-border payments today, and how can stablecoins solve them better than systems like SWIFT or Western Union?

Mouloukou Sanoh: International payments (cross-border & remittance) have been historically slow, due to depending on transaction banking market infrastructures such as Swift. Over the past decade, Fintechs have found methods to work around traditional models by leveraging pre-funded fiat accounts that would provide customers with a real-time experience of sending/receiving a payment. However, currently there are $4tr locked up in pre-funded accounts, which are expensive for payments players to manage, and difficult to scale. With many Payments players moving on-chain, albeit on-chain capabilities offer a more real time experience, Payments players require stablecoin liquidity in order to provide real-time settlement and payments to their customers.

BIC: Can you walk us through how MANSA’s instant liquidity solutions work?

Mouloukou Sanoh: We work with some of the largest payment companies in emerging markets that send cross-border payments into LATAM, SEA and the African continent. We provide them liquidity in stablecoins in the form of a 1-3 day revolving line of credit that they can use to pre-fund transactions to these regions. 

BIC: How does MANSA use stablecoins to make real-time settlements and instant payouts possible?

Mouloukou Sanoh: We leverage the transformative ability of stablecoins to be able to send transactions within seconds as opposed to the T+3 of SWIFT. 

BIC: Which stablecoins does MANSA work with the most, and why? Do you have any favorite blockchains or protocols for stablecoin payments?

Mouloukou Sanoh: We work with the largest stablecoins, USDC and USDT. However, we have noticed that USDT on tron has the most demand in the emerging markets that we work with.

BIC: Can you share a real example of how someone has benefited from using your platform?

Mouloukou Sanoh: Yes we work with payments companies like Afriex and Bitmama, who have been able to move into new markets and provide their customers with faster and cheaper payments.

BIC: Where do you see MANSA in the future? What’s your big vision for changing how money moves around the world?

Mouloukou Sanoh: Initially starting with liquidity, we are accelerating the adoption of stablecoins for payments into emerging markets. Next, we are developing a best in class payout infrastructure, enabling the same companies we finance, to get their payments settled to the end customers bank account or wallet. Finally, we are going to be building USD denominated stablecoins enabling the same end receivers to receive the funds smoothly.

Our vision is to bring the entire payments stack on chain to make payments faster, cheaper and better. 

BIC: What exciting changes or innovations do you think are coming for stablecoins in the next five years?

Mouloukou Sanoh: The biggest innovation is the continued adoption of stablecoins in payments and the companies using stablecoins to build category defining companies making lives of people in emerging markets easier.

BIC: Let’s move to the questions from the Community now 😎

@RosalindaChappell is asking: How does MANSA’s ecosystem support businesses in achieving real-time settlement and improved treasury management, and how does the platform’s liquidity solution help businesses reduce financing costs, especially in regions with volatile currencies or unstable financial systems?

Mouloukou Sanoh: Currently, payment companies need to use their own balance sheet capital as pre-funding in various locations in order to settle transactions instantly. Which means, they can only do as many instantaneous transactions as much as balance sheet capital they have. Our liquidity solution, frees up their capital, and enables them to use it to pre-fund transactions. 

We help payment companies that send money from Europe and North America to Africa, LATAM and SEA. The liquidity we provide are in stablecoins, so there is no FX risk, as the settlement is done in local currency. FX risks occur in the opposite direction, which we do not serve. 

BIC: The second one is by @TrinhHoangTC: In what ways does MANSA’s liquidity provision model address the high transaction fees and lengthy settlement times typically encountered by cross-border payment companies, and how does it reduce the operational complexity for businesses working in multiple jurisdictions?

Mouloukou Sanoh: The reason why fees are so high and transactions lengthy is because of SWIFT, the transactions pass through a series of intermediaries who each add layers of complexity and fees. 

We provide liquidity on-chain in stablecoins, which gets sent in seconds as opposed to several days. The liquidity we provide, which is cheaper than what is currently available in the market, enables payment companies to lower fees

BIC: @RochelWalton: How does MANSA assess the creditworthiness and liquidity needs of a business seeking funding for cross-border payments or short-term receivables, and what data or metrics are used to determine eligibility?

Mouloukou Sanoh: We analyse the payment company’s past and future transaction history, balance sheet, income statement and other financials to determine a line of credit. Furthermore, we take a lien against company’s assets. All liquidity provided is overcollaterlised. 

BIC: @tommynguyencrypto: MANSA has surpassed $3 million in transaction volume within its first month of operations. What does this achievement reveal about the current demand for decentralized liquidity solutions in the cross-border payments sector, and how does this milestone shape MANSA’s long-term vision for growth and scalability?

Mouloukou Sanoh: The entire payment landscape is dependant on liquidity and cannot function without it. The traditional rails are broken and our first month results shows the deep demand there is for liquidity solutions like ours. . 

Our long term vision is to be the central liquidity layer for all payments onchain to emerging markets

BIC: The last question is by @Jefffel_fire: The name MANSA seems very interesting. Does it have any story behind it? Can you share the inspiration for choosing this name?

Mouloukou Sanoh: The name MANSA comes from the Mali Empire, one of the largest and most successful empires on the african continent. MANSA means king and the most famous one was MANSA MUSA, who was the richest person in the world

I chose this name because at that time the african continent was the most advanced in the world and thats what we are trying to do with MANSA. 

Final Thoughts

That wraps up our interview with Mouloukou Sanoh, CEO of MANSA. From discussing the inefficiencies of traditional cross-border payment systems like SWIFT, to how stablecoins can provide instant liquidity and real-time settlement, Mouloukou highlighted the critical role innovation will play in the future of global payments. MANSA’s approach to solving these challenges promises to lower costs and improve cash flow management for businesses worldwide.

Thanks to Mouloukou for sharing his valuable insights, and to our community for the thoughtful questions. Stay tuned to BeInCrypto for more expert perspectives on the evolving payment and crypto landscapes.