Flutterwave, the top provider of payments technology on the African continent, has added eNaira as a way for merchants to accept payments. This could help increase the adoption of digital currency.
Nigeria, which is aiming for eight million users for the app that will be released in October, will be the first country in Africa to introduce a digital currency. But because lenders worry that the app will compete with their existing web platforms and cut into their fee income, it hasn’t been used as much as it could be.
Over a million retailers already accept eNaira payments from their clients, according to a report from Flutterwave yesterday.
“We…” are confident that this number will grow further as we continue to innovate and expand,” Flutterwave said in a statement.
After 850,000 bank clients downloaded the eNaira digital currency in its initial phase of adoption, Nigeria hopes to increase usage by luring those without bank accounts.
Remember that the Central Bank of Nigeria awarded Flutterwave a Switching and Processing License, which is regarded as the most significant payments processing license held by the apex bank.
This enables the business to provide customers with transaction switching and card processing services. Non-bank acquiring, agency banking and payment gateway services are a few more.
Due to the Switching and Processing license, Flutterwave is permitted to facilitate transactions between banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions. The business can also handle card transactions, do agency banking, and offer a variety of payment services to customers directly. Under the terms of its International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) and Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) licenses, Flutterwave used to be able to do business.
Read: A New Tap-to-Pay Service for Mobile Devices in Nigeria is Now Available
Flutterwave launches SME Lending, fintech-as-a-service, Google and Apple Pay options
The pan-African fintech company, Flutterwave, recently announced a rebranding of its dashboard and logo. It also expanded its range of services to include small business lending and fintech as a service (FaaS), among other things.
The announcement comes after Flutterwave confirmed two days earlier that it had raised $250 million in a Series D round, bringing the company’s value to nearly $3 billion, which is three times as much as it was worth before. Olugbenga Agboola, the company’s founder and CEO, is in charge of making it easy for small to large businesses in Africa to pay each other across borders using a single API.
Flutterwave 3.0, Africa’s most valuable startup and a payments giant launched a number of products and services. These included FaaS services for embedded finance, SME loans for its users, card issuance for a variety of clients, and an announcement that Apple Pay and Google Pay would be added to its payment options.
The company’s lending partners, CashConnect Microfinance Bank, MoneyWise Microfinance Bank, Wema Bank, Zenith Bank, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, and Sterling Bank, are offering the new SME loan product, Flutterwave Capital.
“With Flutterwave Capital, we’re making it easier for business owners to access the funds they require to grow their businesses.” Business owners can expand, increase inventory, hire more labor, pay bills, run marketing campaigns, and ultimately grow revenue with these funds, “the company said.”
Only Flutterwave companies in Nigeria may currently apply for loans, but the company says it is aiming to expand access to its companies in South Africa, Kenya, and other markets where it conducts business.
In terms of the fintech-as-a-service option, Flutterwave is offering its infrastructure so that other businesses can use its APIs to add financial features to their current apps, products, and services.
The FaaS solution from Flutterwave offers a single point of contact for Know Your Customer (KYC), account opening, debit card issuance, payments, real-time transfers, account maintenance, and compliance.
The approach lets businesses avoid the often time-consuming work of setting up infrastructure, integrating many different financial systems that don’t work together, getting licenses, and following rules in order to develop and offer digital financial services to customers.
Flutterwave, which has international clients like Booking.com, Flywire, and Uber, also assists companies outside of Africa in growing their operations there.
To expand into Nigeria, Cadana has teamed up with Flutterwave
More Advancement by Flutterwave
The new features and products fit in with Flutterwave’s ambitious plan to add more to its line of products. In 2021, Flutterwave launched Flutterwave Market, a platform for retailers to sell their wares online, and Send, a remittance tool that allows users to send money to and from Africa.
The business, which has offices in San Francisco and Lagos, raised $170 million in a Series C round in March 2021 at a $1 billion valuation. With the most recent financing, the company has now garnered $475 million in investments since its start in 2016 (including a $35 million Series B in 2020 and a $20 million Series A in 2018).
With a $3 billion valuation, Flutterwave surpasses the $2 billion milestone reached by the cross-border payments platform Chipper Cash, funded by FTX, and SoftBank-backed fintech OPay in 2021.
Flutterwave currently processes 200 million transactions totalling more than $16 billion via an infrastructure that spans 34 African nations. Its system is used by more than 900,000 businesses worldwide to process payments in 150 different currencies and uses a variety of payment methods, including bank transfers, local and international cards, mobile wallets, and its consumer product, Barter, which now supports multicurrency wallets.
