CBN Grants Flutterwave Switching And Processing Licence

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company has been granted a Switching and Processing License by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which is widely regarded as the apex bank’s most valuable payments processing licence.

This allows Flutterwave to offer transaction switching and card processing services to customers. Others include non-bank acquiring, agency banking and payment gateway services.

The Switching and Processing license allows Flutterwave to 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 license, Flutterwave operated with its Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) and International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licenses.

Speaking on the development, CEO and founder of Flutterwave, 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, 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.”

Flutterwave’s chief regulatory and government affairs officer, Oluwabankole Falade said, “We’re thrilled to have been issued this license after fulfilling all of the regulatory requirements. The application process was very rigorous and included a detailed review of our operations as a business. As a switch, we have more responsibilities and will continue to work with Regulators to ensure we meet and exceed their expectations.”

Reacting to the news, head of Product Marketing Onyedikachim Nwankwo, 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.”

The application and review process by the CBN was a tough and rigorous process that examined every aspect of Flutterwave’s business, including the company’s financial position.

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 Apoplication Programme Interface (API).

Flutterwave has processed over 200 million transactions worth over $16 billion to date and serves more than 1,000,000 businesses including customers like Uber, Flywire, Booking.com, etc.

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 etc. Flutterwave has an infrastructure reach in over 34 African countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa etc.