Africa’s leading payments technology company, Flutterwave, has announced that it has been granted a Switching and Processing Licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)- widely regarded as CBN’s most valuable payments processing licence.
With this licence, Flutterwave can now enable transactions between banks, fintechs and other financial institutions. The company is also able to process card transactions, participate in agency banking and offer various payment services without any intermediary. Prior to this licence, Flutterwave operated with its Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) and International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licences.
Flutterwave also announced that its merchants in Nigeria can now accept eNaira payments on their platform. This followed the 3.0 product announcement event held in March this year, during which a range of upcoming product features were showcased.
eNaira is a digital currency issued and regulated by the CBN as a medium of exchange and store of value. It was launched on October 25, 2021 and is available to users with or without a bank account, as they only need to register and access the wallet via the eNaira mobile app. To complete transactions, users can either scan QR codes or generate one-time tokens using the app. With this integration, Nigerian merchants can now use Flutterwave to collect eNaira payments from customers who have the eNaira app. To get started, merchants simply have to enable the eNaira payment option on their Flutterwave dashboard.
Commenting, CEO and Founder, Olugbenga GB Agboola said: “Securing this licence is big news for our customers, partners, investors, and other stakeholders. It is an important milestone in our growth story. Our mission remains to simplify payments for endless possibilities and with our new adoption of eNaira as a payment method on Flutterwave, we are helping ensure that everyone has access to payment solutions that work for them.
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“Building a thriving payments ecosystem in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is in line with our goal of developing a world-class and secure payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.”
Also speaking on the development, Senior Vice President, Products and Designs at Flutterwave, Azeez Oluwafemi, said: “We strive to allow individuals and businesses with various payment needs and requirements to do business easily. The eNaira feature is important for both merchants and customers because it offers an alternative payment method that many users find seamless. It is a key update to Flutterwave’s platform and we continue to look out for opportunities like this to improve our offering to customers.”
Flutterwave is a leading African payments technology company that enables businesses across the world to expand their operations in Africa and other emerging markets through a platform that enables cross-border transactions via one API.
Flutterwave has processed over 200million transactions valued at over $16billion to date and serves more than 1,000,000 businesses including customers such as Uber, Flywire, Booking.com, and many others.
The company’s key advantage is international payment processing in 150 currencies and multiple payment modes including local and international cards, mobile wallets, bank transfers, Barter by Flutterwave and others. Flutterwave has an infrastructure reach in over 34 African countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa and others.