Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, yesterday announced that it has been granted a Switching and Processing License by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
The license is widely regarded as CBN’s most valuable payments processing license.
With this license, 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 the license, Flutterwave operated with its Payment Solution Service Provider, PSSP, and International Money Transfer Operator, IMTO, licenses.
Flutterwave also announced that its merchants in Nigeria can now accept eNaira payments on their platform. This follows 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 Central Bank of Nigeria 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.
Reacting to the development, the CEO and founder, Olugbenga GB Agboola, said: “Securing this license 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.
”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.”
In his reaction, Azeez Oluwafemi, Senior Vice President, Products and Designs, said” “We strive to allow individuals and businesses with various payment needs and requirements 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.”