Hanapay is your personal financial identity on Sohana — a clean, human handle that replaces IBANs, account numbers, and SWIFT codes for every transaction inside the network.
No more screenshots of bank details. No more "what's your number again?" voice notes. Just one handle, shared like a username, used like a memory.
When you ask someone to send you money today, you typically have to share a string of details that nobody can remember and most people enter incorrectly at least once. An IBAN is 22 to 34 characters of pure friction. A SWIFT/BIC code is another 8–11 characters of bank-routing arcana. A US routing number is 9 digits with no margin for error. These identifiers were designed in the 1970s for batch processing between bank mainframes — not for one human asking another for a few hundred euros.
For African and diaspora users, this gets worse. Cross-border transfers add SWIFT fees, intermediary bank charges, currency markups, and a delay measured in days. Mobile money offers speed but locks you to a phone number tied to one provider in one country. Remittance apps add app downloads, KYC re-verification, and per-transaction friction. Every solution requires you to memorise something you shouldn't have to memorise.
27 characters. Used across the EU. One typo and your money goes nowhere.
11 characters of bank-routing code. Required for any cross-border bank transfer.
9-digit routing number plus your account number. No spaces, no dashes, no forgiveness.
Tied to a SIM in a single country. Lose the phone, lose the wallet.
A Hanatag is your unique payment identity on Sohana — a single handle that lets anyone, anywhere on the network send you money in seconds. Your handle is yours alone. It looks like an Instagram username, behaves like an email address, and works like an account number. Examples: @dave, @amina.koroma, @sohana.james.
When somebody wants to pay you, they don't ask for an IBAN. They don't ask for your bank. They don't ask which country your account is in. They just type your @handle, the amount, and confirm. The platform handles everything underneath — finding you, checking your wallet, settling the transfer, generating the receipt. The whole flow takes about as long as sending a WhatsApp message.
Your Hanatag is more than an alias. It is a verified, identity-anchored payment address. Every Hanatag belongs to a real, KYC-verified person or organisation. When someone sends to @aïcha.diallo, they know they are sending to the actual Aïcha Diallo on the platform — not someone with a confusingly similar account number, not a typo'd routing detail.
When you sign up to Sohana, you receive an auto-generated handle right away — something like @daviss4218 — so you can start receiving payments from day one. But your real handle is the one you choose. Most users claim a custom Hanatag during their first 24 hours on the platform. The process takes under a minute and looks like this on the current Sohana interface.
From your profile, tap the Hanatag & QR tab. You'll see your current auto-generated handle and a button to customise it. This is where everything happens.
Type the handle you want — letters, numbers, or dots. The platform checks availability in real time and suggests alternatives if your first choice is taken. Names are unique across the entire network.
Once claimed, your Hanatag works immediately. Copy it to a chat, share the QR code in person, or post it on your bio. Anyone with a Sohana account can send to it from anywhere in the network.
Whether you're paying back a friend, sending help to family, or splitting a bill across continents — the entire flow fits on one screen. Here is exactly what sending and receiving look like on Sohana today.
Hanapay is not a product looking for a use case. It is built around the financial conversations that already happen every day across African and diaspora households — the ones currently held together with Western Union queues, screenshot exchanges of bank details, and "is the money there yet?" voice notes.
Instead of a SWIFT transfer that takes 3–5 days and costs 7%, send to your child's @handle directly. Money lands in seconds, in their local currency, with a note attached.
Monthly support to family in Cameroon, weekly help with grandparents' medication, contributions for funerals or weddings — sent directly to a verified handle, not a remittance agent's counter.
Five friends, one dinner, one bill. The host pays, then collects each share in seconds — no "I'll send tomorrow when I'm at my computer," no chasing the slowest payer for a week.
Pool members, ROSCA participants, and campaign donors all use Hanatags to contribute. The platform attributes every transfer correctly, even when members are in three different countries with three different currencies.
Hairdressers, tailors, market traders, freelancers — anyone who currently shouts "send to my MTN momo" can now share a single Hanatag that works regardless of which country the customer is paying from.
Birthdays, weddings, baby gifts, condolence support — moments where the gesture matters more than the amount, but where currently the friction of sending money internationally takes the shine off it.
There is no shortage of ways to move money internationally. Each has its strengths. The honest comparison below shows where Hanapay sits today, where it leads, and where competing solutions still hold an advantage. Built for African and diaspora users, but evaluated against every realistic alternative they would actually consider.
| Feature | Hanapay | Bank transfer (SWIFT) | Remittance apps (Wise, WorldRemit) |
Mobile money (MTN, Orange, M-Pesa) |
Crypto wallets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identity & ease of use | |||||
| Send via username (@handle) | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ~ |
| No bank details required | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ~ | ✓ |
| Verified identity per handle | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ✕ |
| QR code share / in-person payment | ✓ | ✕ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Speed | |||||
| Settlement time (within network) | Instant | 1–5 days | Mins–hrs | Instant | Mins–hrs |
| Settlement time (cross-border) | Instant* | 2–5 days | Mins–hrs | N/A | 10 min–hrs |
| Cost (typical fee) | |||||
| Internal transfer (same network) | 0% | €0–5 flat | 0.5–1% | 1–3% | Network fee |
| Currency conversion | 0.7% | 3–6% markup | 0.5–1% | 3–7% | Spread + gas |
| Cross-border to African bank | 1.0–3.5% | 5–10% + | 2–5% | N/A | Off-ramp fee |
| For diaspora & parents sending to students | |||||
| Parent in Africa → student in EU/UK/CA | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ✕ | ~ |
| Diaspora → family on the continent | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ~ | ~ |
| Recipient receives in local currency | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Works without recipient's bank account | ✓ | ✕ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recurring / standing transfers | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ✕ |
| Trust & group features | |||||
| Built for community finance (ROSCAs, pools) | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Transparent transaction history | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ~ | ✓ |
| Builds verifiable financial reputation | ✓ | ~ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Lightweight onboarding | ✓ | ✕ | ~ | ✓ | ~ |
Every contribution you make to a savings circle, every on-time payment, every campaign you support — all of it sits behind your Hanatag. Over time, your handle stops being just an address. It becomes a financial credential. Other Sohana users can see whether someone is trusted, active, and in good standing — without seeing private details.
Every contribution, payout, and payment is logged against your Hanatag. Permanent ledger entry per transaction.
Your Njangi Credit Score — calculated from on-time contribution rate, completion rate, and tenure — is anchored to your handle.
Every Hanatag is backed by completed KYC. When you send to a handle, you're sending to a real, verified person.
Circles you've completed, pools you administer, campaigns you've supported — your network speaks for you in every new relationship.
Hanapay starts as the simplest, most human way to move money inside the Sohana network. As we obtain regulatory authorisations and integrate with licensed payment partners, the same handle becomes the universal address through which value moves between Sohana and the rest of the financial world.
Claim your handle. Share it like a username. Use it like a memory. Sending money should feel as natural as sending a message — and on Sohana, it finally does.