FINTECH AFRICA | ‘We’re Yet To Scratch the Surface in Africa,’ Says CEO Of Africa’s Most Valuable Startup

The CEO of Nigerian fintech, Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola, has revealed the payment unicorn’s ambitions saying they are only getting started in Africa.

In the last 1 year, Flutterwave, Africa’s most valuable startup, has been on an expansion spree acquiring operating licenses in multiple African countries including:

• Malawi
• Uganda
• Ghana
• Mozambique

The company has also acquired 49 money transmitter licenses across the United States as it looks to fulfill its mission of “bridging the gap between Africa and the global economy.”

“Our recently acquired licenses in Malawi, Uganda, Ghana, and Mozambique, as well as our expansion to 49 states in the U.S., will further extend our solutions of bridging the gap between Africa and the global economy,” Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, said in a recent interview.

According to the Agboola, Flutterwave’s main markets in Africa are:

• Egypt
• Morocco

in North Africa

• Nigeria
• Ghana
• Senegal and
• Côte d’Ivoire

in West Africa

• Rwanda
• Tanzania
• Uganda, and
• Kenya

in the East Africa corridor.

Then you look at Central Africa, that’s Cameroon.

The acquisition of licenses across these leading markets will help the company become more reliable to its customers, eliminating any dependencies from banks and other third-party relationships, while also solidifying its business.

“…You have to ensure that you eliminate as many third-party layers as possible and ensure you are the direct owner of your infrastructure. This will allow you to give your customers more value,” said Agboola.

“We cannot afford third-party downtime, so we need to hold our licenses. However, it depends on the market. Some markets are obviously more priority for our customers than others, but our goal is any market that is top-of-mind for our top customers, we have to hold our license in those markets.”

Agboola also addressed the decision to stop operations of its consumer product, Barter, and instead focus on its enterprise product Flutterwave For Business (FFB), as well as Send App, its remittance product.

According to TechCrunch, Flutterwave For Business (FFB), which banks, startups, and companies in e-commerce, transportation, and FMCG use to accept payments, generates 90% of the fintech’s revenue.

The remaining 10% comes from its remittance service, Send App, which enables users to make international money transfers across Africa, Europe, the U.S., and Canada.

“We want to be that infrastructure layer that powers all the who’s who of payments on the continent; I’d say we want to be the Adyen of Africa.”