Africa’s leading payments technology company, Flutterwave Inc., on Thursday announced it secured a Nigerian banking licence. 

This licence enables the company to hold funds and deposits directly, strengthening its financial infrastructure across its largest market and enabling more efficient financial services and settlement flows for consumers, businesses and enterprises.

Historically, global payment companies have operated via a “sponsorship” model, partnering with established commercial banks to access national clearing and settlement systems. While functional, this arrangement often limits a fintech’s pace of innovation and requires them to share a portion of the transaction value with the sponsoring institution.

By securing this banking licence, Flutterwave gains greater control over how funds move within its ecosystem, including the ability to hold deposits and manage financial flows across its platform.

While Flutterwave will continue to work closely with banking partners across the broader financial ecosystem, the licence enables the company to internalise key elements of its financial value chain, improving operational efficiency and supporting faster product development.

This shift strengthens operational autonomy and allows Flutterwave to capture more value from the transactions processed within its ecosystem.

Tapping into a multitrillion-naira market

Nigeria represents one of Africa’s most dynamic financial ecosystems, with trillions of naira moving through digital payment channels each year. By operating more directly within the regulated financial system, Flutterwave can further optimise how money moves across its platform and improve settlement efficiency across its network of merchants, businesses and consumers.

“This milestone allows us to make our infrastructure more efficient and deliver faster, more reliable financial services,” said Olugbenga Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave. “By operating directly within the financial system, we can streamline money movement, accelerate settlement for merchants, and build products that support sustainable long-term growth.”

A new generation of banking infrastructure

For over a decade, Flutterwave has powered payments for millions of Nigerians and businesses across the world. With this licence, the company is bringing that same infrastructure into a new generation of banking built for:

Consumer Financial Services: Seamless accounts, transfers, and payments for everyday users within the SendApp ecosystem.

Business Financial Tools: Accounts, payouts, payroll, and multi-currency capabilities for businesses of every size.

Enterprise Treasury Infrastructure: Tools to manage complex financial operations, treasury, and liquidity.

Digital Platforms: Embedded financial services for marketplaces and platform operators.

Developers: Programmable financial infrastructure enabling the creation of financial products through APIs.

Integrated financial solutions

The banking licence enhances Flutterwave’s core payments business by allowing the company to optimise settlement flows and manage funds more efficiently within its ecosystem.

SendApp Users: Over a million people using SendApp will now access: enhanced financial services, including personal account numbers and instant transfers, without switching apps.

Flutterwave for Business: Over two million businesses can now open accounts, manage payouts, run payroll, and access multi-currency capabilities.

Smart Financial Tools: Flutterwave will introduce: data-driven financial services, including working capital financing and merchant lending powered by real transaction data, alongside treasury and savings products.

Built on a Decade of Trust

Flutterwave’s financial services infrastructure is built on a foundation of security and compliance, featuring PCI DSS Level 1 certification, SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliance, and enterprise-grade fraud protection.

To date, the company has processed over $40 billion in payments and enabled more than 1 billion unique transactions.

The company continues to explore new technologies, including stablecoin-enabled settlement, to further improve global payment efficiency and connect African businesses to the global economy.

This regulatory milestone follows Flutterwave’s acquisition of Mono, which strengthened the company’s financial connectivity infrastructure.

As Flutterwave marks its tenth year of operations in 2026, it remains committed to building the financial infrastructure layer that powers Nigeria’s growing digital economy.