The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted Flutterwave, an African payments technology company a Switching and Processing License (CBN)—widely regarded as CBN’s most valuable payments processing license. This license allows Flutterwave to offer customers transaction switching and card processing services. 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 can also 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.
Commenting, CEO and Founder, 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.”
Commenting on the news, 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, Onyedikachim Nwankwo, Head of Product Marketing, 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.
