Fintech startup Flutterwave secures Nigeria’s highest payments processing license
Flutterwave, Africa’smost valuable fintech startup, has secured a Switching and Processing License by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)— widely regarded as CBN’s most valuable payments processing license.
This license allows Flutterwave to offer customers transaction switching and card processing services. Others include non-bank acquiring, agency banking and payment gateway services.
Flutterwave, Africa’smost valuable fintech startup, has secured a Switching and Processing License by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)— widely regarded as CBN’s most valuable payments processing license.
This license allows Flutterwave to offer customers transaction switching and card processing services. Others include non-bank acquiring, agency banking and payment gateway services.
The company can also process card transactions, participate in agency banking and offer various payment services without intermediaries. Prior to this license, Flutterwave operated with its Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) and International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licenses.
Commenting, CEO and Founder, Olugbenga GB Agboola said, “This is big news for our customers, partners, investors, and other stakeholders. It is an important milestone in our growth story. Building a thriving payments ecosystem in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, aligns with our goal of developing a world-class and secure payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.
Reacting to the news, Onyedikachim Nwankwo, Head of Product Marketing, said, “The license will allow us to offer more services and explore more payment use cases for our ecosystem. With this license, we can offer more value to our customers while taking more control of our value chain to enable an improved payments experience for our enterprise, medium scale and retail customers.”
Flutterwave is considering an IPO amid a PR nightmare
Flutterwave is reportedly considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the US and Nigeria, according to Bloomberg. Sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the recent recruitments into key positions at Flutterwave were all in preparation for the IPO. Recall that Flutterwave had recently hired Oneal Bhamban, a former VP at American Express, as its new Chief Financial Officer. Also, the company hired Gurbhej Dhillon, a former MD at Goldman Sachs, as its new Chief Technology Officer.
Besides that, Flutterwave has been grappling with a slew of reputation-damaging allegations and regulatory hurdles since the start of 2022. Just two days ago, a Kenyan High Court granted an order to freeze an additional sum of $3.3 million (Sh400.6 million) belonging to the pan-African fintech giant.
Kenya’s Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), which is leading an investigation into the fintech firm, had filed to block the funds from being transferred. The agency also accused Flutterwave of money laundering and seeks to have the frozen millions forfeited to the government.
