In April, Flutterwave, a pan-African fintech unicorn, secured a national microfinance banking licence via its acquisition of open banking startup Mono. It joined a rising team of Nigerian fintechs transferring into regulated banking. In January, Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Financial institution, whilst Moniepoint secured a microfinance banking licence in 2025.
African fintechs are transferring from simplest processing bills to preserving deposits, offering credit score and providing different banking services and products. For Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, cofounder and CEO of Flutterwave, African fintechs are changing into banks as a result of bills by myself are not sufficient.
Talking at Moonshot in Lagos on Wednesday, Agboola stated Flutterwave’s resolution to acquire a countrywide microfinance banking licence used to be pushed through the wish to keep watch over extra of the infrastructure at the back of its bills industry.
“What we’ve noticed is you can not supply a perfect fee enjoy for those who don’t keep watch over all of the stack, or a minimum of a large piece of the stack,” Agboola stated. “And in maximum of the ones massive stacks, it’s simple to supply a 3rd occasion who does no longer proportion the similar degree of center of attention that you’ve got.”
Flutterwave has processed more than $40 billion in lifetime bills, giving it a big present bills industry to construct its banking technique round. The corporate has additionally stated that greater than 2 million companies use its platform. Agboola stated the size of the bills industry additionally uncovered the constraints of depending on third-party monetary establishments. If a spouse financial institution is going down, portions of Flutterwave’s fee infrastructure can move down with it.
“We didn’t make a choice to do banking for the sake of banking,” Agboola stated. “We selected to do banking to create extra intensity for our shoppers.”
The transfer into banking additionally offers Flutterwave a trail into lending, a space the place the corporate believes its present transaction information may give it a bonus. Agboola stated Flutterwave can see how companies and shoppers use its fee infrastructure, together with when shoppers strive transactions with out enough budget or when companies have receivables however want operating capital instantly.
Alternatively, Flutterwave’s lending technique isn’t instantly desirous about changing into a mass-market lender. Agboola stated the corporate is beginning with liquidity and working-capital infrastructure, together with pre-funding payouts for corporations that wish to make bills in Africa prior to receiving their very own budget.
In June, Flutterwave raised a Series E round at a $3.25 billion valuation after Ripple invested an undisclosed quantity within the corporate. The partnership additionally built-in Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin into Flutterwave’s fee infrastructure.
The deal used to be a part of a bigger stablecoin technique that adopted the corporate’s partnership with Turnkey and Nuvion to release stablecoin balances and embedded wallets supporting USDC and USDT. In June, it additionally partnered with Pace to construct stablecoin-powered fee and agreement infrastructure for African bills.
Agboola stated the corporate is seeing companies come upon stablecoins as a sensible fee choice, specifically when paying global providers.
“We’ve constructed what I name the most important deployment of stablecoins in Africa, the place we fortify the entire blockchains and stablecoins,” Agboola stated.
The growth is going on towards a backdrop of emerging pageant between fintechs and conventional banks for keep watch over of consumers’ monetary relationships. Flutterwave says it these days operates throughout greater than 35 nations and has greater than 50 world licences.