E&M Magazine: Flutterwave, All Your Financial Tools in One App

With financial services becoming increasingly fragmented across different platforms, it’s clear that it’s useful to have an integrated solution at hand. A new app has just entered Mozambique for this purpose and could even help promote financial inclusion.

Founded in Nigeria, Flutterwave is what is known in the technology field as a Payment Service Provider (PSP), a Payment Service Provider present in more than 30 countries and now arriving in Mozambique. It brings with it the promise of helping users to access their bank accounts more easily, manage their mobile wallets and make transfers and payments, all from a single interface. This PSP also offers a financial platform that allows companies to expand their operations in Africa and other emerging markets through local and cross-border transactions.

‘We facilitate payments for merchants and customers through a solution called Flutterwave for Business, which allows merchants to receive payments from their customers through various acceptable commercial transactions available throughout the country. We recognise that, both in Mozambique and in Africa, payment methods are highly fragmented. People often need to use several devices – either to receive payments from a company or for mobile wallet or card transactions. Our proposal is to offer a single platform that allows customers to aggregate all transaction methods, optimising costs and providing a global view of operations,’ Hermínio Manjate, Flutterwave’s national director of expansion and partnerships, explained to E& M.

Flutterwave was founded in 2016 and, according to Hermínio Manjate, has already served more than 1.5 million customers globally.

Facilitating financial inclusion

As well as simplifying consumers’ financial lives, the platform is capable of promoting financial inclusion, since it can be accessed in remote areas or those without access to traditional banking services, or even those with difficulty accessing the internet. ‘The level of internet penetration and use in Mozambique is still quite limited. There is a lot of groundwork that needs to be done to ensure the offer of attractive and affordable internet packages, especially for people on low incomes. We see this difficulty as an opportunity to expand our services. That’s why we have our application accessible via the web-site and also available in the App Store (for iPhones), Play Store (for Android), among others,’ Hermínio Manjate explained.

The experience gained in the Nigerian market included payment terminals (POS) in the markets. It was there that it became clear that, ‘even in regions where the Internet is not widely used, customers can make payments to merchants or entrepreneurs who have our POS, using mobile devices based on USSD’, interaction menus, via numbers, which can be used even by basic telephones.

Variety of services

In the first phase, users in Mozambique will be able to benefit from the Flutterwave For Business application as the initial product. This feature also works in the area of remittances, making it possible to receive funds from abroad via the ‘Send App’, which enables the diaspora to make transfers to family members or friends in Africa and vice versa.

Users in Mozambique will be able to benefit from the Flutterwave For Business application, which also works in the area of remittances, making it possible to receive funds from abroad

‘Our product portfolio is not limited to these services. The availability of new products is in line with market demand. We are continually working to offer solutions that meet our customers’ needs. However, it is essential to consider the regulatory requirements of each product to ensure that we operate within the law,’ explained Flutterwave’s national director of expansion and partnerships.

Despite having already received approval from the Bank of Mozambique to operate in the country, Flutterwave is still at the stage of creating partnerships with mobile wallet services, as well as with the SIMO network. However, the company intends to replicate, in a genuine way, the success it has had in other markets.

Company: Flutterwave