Flutterwave, the biggest Africa-focus fintech firm has been granted a Switching and Processing license in Nigeria and the company says it’s millions of customers in and outside of Nigeria stand to benefit greatly from the new licenses.
The license were granted to Flutterwave by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In a blogpost, the company said “It’s great news for us because it allows us to do more for businesses and customers. A switching and processing license allows us to facilitate transactions between financial service providers, merchants, customers and other stakeholders.”
It explained that hitherto, Flutterwave operated in Nigeria with just its Payments Services Solutions Provider (PSSP) and International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licenses. So, whenever customers pay a merchant on Flutterwave, they leverage the PSSP license, and when one sends money from the UK to Nigeria, one is leveraging the IMTO license.
But because of the complex nature of the payments network, Flutterwave works with other partners behind the scenes to process and settle all those transactions in real time.
“Now, with our new license, we process transactions directly and much more,” it said. “A switching and processing license gives us the ability to do more for our customers. Moreso, it allows us to connect every single store of value in Nigeria to global commerce. That way, we’re not only helping businesses grow, but we’re also supporting the growth of the economy.”
Faster Transactions
We often say ‘payments is partnership’. When you send money from Mr A to Mr B via Flutterwave, there’s a chain of events and partners that help Flutterwave fulfill and settle your transaction. While we will be working with these partners, this license offers us more control of our value chain, including settlement and transaction clearing capabilities. Payments are faster and with less hiccups.
Improved payments experience
With more oversight of the payment value chain, we are able to deliver an improved experience to our customers. The switching license gives us more room to operate and serve our customers while removing various constraints. This license is a game changer for us and our customers and we can’t wait for you to enjoy all that it offers. With this license, we’re able to get you quality support speedily.
More Products
This license offers us the opportunity to launch more products, improve existing solutions and support our customers in more innovative ways. A switching license comes with even more capabilities than the PSSP license we have been operating with. Here’s a little secret. We have been quietly building amazing features and products in anticipation of this license and now we’re about to deploy all of these to help you grow your business.
Improved Security
A switching and processing license is CBN’s most desirable payment license because it embeds the licensee at the core of Nigeria’s financial ecosystem. This comes with rigorous and tough checks across every single part of the business’ operations. By virtue of being granted this license, we have demonstrated the highest level of security standards and processes in Nigeria. We will continue to offer security measures, standards and processes that match and even exceed global, industry and national standards.
