Flutterwave co-founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, has emphasized the company’s determination to proceed with its scheduled Initial Public Offering (IPO), despite challenges. He points to the necessity of aligning with global client expectations and compliance standards.

During an interview with Bloomberg, Agboola reiterated that while current market conditions might be unstable and potentially affect the listing process, the company remains resolute in its commitment to bolstering interactions with international clients and upholding global compliance protocols. Agboola believes that the IPO serves as a means to achieve these objectives.

“There’s some kind of customers we’ll attract when we are public. The large global clients who need you to have the same level of compliance and level of global view that they have,” he said.

“The markets aren’t great right now,” and this could slow any listing, Agboola added, without giving the specific date for the IPO.

Flutterwave has been in recent times, accused of financial impropriety and infighting over stock shares, which stand against the company’s chances at IPO.

But Agboola dismissed accusations of internal conflicts related to former employees’ stock entitlements. He affirmed that concerns regarding staff mistreatment and intimidation were instances that occurred in a “very, very isolated” manner, and consequently, would not impact the intended share offering.

Flutterwave is gradually becoming a household name in the African fintech space despite setbacks in its operation. For instance, the Kenyan authorities recently suspended the operation of Flutterwave, alleging that it has been operating illegally in the country – without a financial services license from the central bank.

However, the suspension was lifted and Flutterwave has gained access to more African countries – Egypt and Rwanda.

Agboola expressed confidence that the unicorn, whose valuation stood at $3bn following its 2022 $250 million funding round, has the market and the instruments to reach IPO potential.

Agboola expressed a strong belief in the company’s capacity to extend its presence and enhance its growth. He mentioned that there exists potential for venturing into fresh markets and considering acquisitions when feasible.

“The goal is to make merchants across Africa, consumers across Africa use us more and know that we are the most reliable platform to use,” he said. “Africa is huge, the potential is huge,”

Since its founding in 2016, Flutterwave has gained the backing of notable global investors such as Tiger Global, Y-Combinator, Visa Ventures, Mastercard, and Avenir Growth Capital. This is believed to have propelled amazing growth – notable in the increase of its customer base and profits.

Just a few months back, the company introduced a novel payment solution named “Tuition.” This product empowers African users to effortlessly settle diverse fees for educational institutions, both within Africa and abroad, utilizing their local currencies.

According to a Bloomberg report, while refraining from disclosing the exact yearly growth in total revenue, Flutterwave highlighted that its payment processing operations via its payments app, SendApp, saw a remarkable 23-fold increase in the initial half of this year in comparison to the corresponding period in 2022.

In addition, the report indicated that payments made through point-of-sale devices experienced a more than fivefold surge, and the revenue generated by its small and medium business divisions leaped nearly fourfold.

So far, Flutterwave has a presence in about 30 African countries.

I was alarmed over how neobanks in less than a decade of existing in Nigeria are sweeping through Nigeria’s banking space and snatching up old-time customers from conventional banks. 

If you go to local and city markets and ask, there is a high chance that the market vendors are using either Opay, Kuda, Palmpay or Moniepoint. If you intend to make a transfer to an Uber rider, cab driver or delivery bike rider, chances are that the driver or rider is using either Opay, palmpay, kuda or Moniepoint. 

I enquired from some of the users who excitedly turned themselves into unpaid ambassadors of the neobanks and I found out that why most of the conventional bank customers are migrating to neobanks in droves are majorly two reasons; first which is immediate receiving of credit alerts once the sender initiates and concludes the transfer transaction. 

They say that if a buyer pays through a transfer, they receive the credit alert instantly unlike conventional banks where the sender will be debited and the receiver will not be credited for hours and this has caused a lot of problems for them. Secondly, most of those neobanks do not charge arbitrarily. Most of them do not even charge the sender the sending charges and the receiver the receiving charge that conventional banks charge. 

The issue of a receiver not getting credited immediately after a sender or buyer transfers money was a big problem that needed to be fixed. It stalled commercial and economic activities. Some cab riders, Uber drivers and even market vendors have gotten into fights with their passengers over this issue. Some people have been embarrassed and left stranded over this problem. So once everyone heard that there is a bank that the users get credited to immediately the sender transfers the money the flood gate was flipped open. 

As for the second problem of incessant charges. Neobanks fixed that as well. Users testify that they do not get the end-of-the-month charges, card maintenance charges, VAT charges, transfer charges and whatever other charges conventional banks use to rip their customers off. 

To add sugar to already sweet tea, some of these neobanks as well have features of letting their customers who are out of cash to borrow money using the app and pay back the money gradually. You can borrow without providing collateral, or a guarantor or without going through the unnecessary stress that conventional banks subject customers who want to borrow. 

More so, opening an account with a neobank is very easy. It is as easy as opening a social media account. I opened an Opay account the other day and I was amazed at how fast and easy it was. That same day I was able to carry out transactions inside that app immediately after I finished creating the account. Unlike conventional banks where it takes a lot of form filling and requesting of documents upon documents just to open an account and after you open, you will have to wait for some weeks before you are able to withdraw money out of the account. 

The “killer feature” of a neobank like Opay is the feature of your mobile phone number becoming your bank account number once you sign up. That was the most attractive feature for me. Now I don’t have to cram numerous ten digits of bank account numbers since my mobile phone number is my bank account number.

Finally, I have never seen or heard that the mobile apps of these neobanks experienced a glitch. Unlike conventional banks where the app and the Ussd will stop working for a whole day. In fact the reason that forced me to abandon my conventional bank accounts and go for a neobank is that the conventional banks are always getting me stranded. Two of my bank apps stopped opening for the whole day and I was stranded. I was complaining about it and someone suggested I go for a neobank. I heeded that suggestion and they have not failed and I have never looked back ever since.

For someone like me who prides himself as an old school to migrate from using conventional banks to neobanks it is a pointer that the neobanks are really doing things right, fixing problems that conventional banks are not fixing.

I know it is not a wild dream for me to imagine a scenario where in the coming years, conventional banks will lose all their customers to neobanks. I can bet on it that if conventional banks do not sit up and introduce most of these killer features that are already in use by neobanks and especially fix their mobile and internet banking they will lose all their customers.

The world has gone digital and customers want things quicker, easier and without stress. It’s no longer the case where customers will have to queue up in banking halls just to carry out a transaction. Some conventional banks are adjusting themselves to become challenger banks. 

Niger Republic has been suspended by the African Union (AU), following the military coup executed by members of the presidential guard on July 26.

Announcing the suspension, the AU urged its members to watch their dealings with Niger and to avoid any action that might legitimize the junta.

The junta had overthrown the democratically elected President, Mohamed Bazoum, citing poor leadership and corruption that has exposed millions of Niger people to severe economic hardship.

Diplomatic efforts by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore constitutional order in the uranium-rich West African country have failed. The regional bloc issued a seven-day ultimatum to the junta on July 30, to reinstate Bazoum unconditionally or face military action.

Defiant, the junta led by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani has proposed a three-year transition to civilian rule, but it was rejected by the ECOWAS leaders. The bloc announced last week that D-Day has been set for its military action, having activated a standby force.

The AU Peace and Security Council said in a communiqué on Tuesday that it had noted the decision to activate an ECOWAS standby force and asked the AU Commission to assess the economic, social, and security implications of deploying such a force.

The resolutions in Tuesday’s statement were adopted at a council meeting held on Aug. 14, it said.

The leaders of the AU additionally called upon the coup leaders to promptly release the duly elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been in detention since the coup, and to return to their military barracks.

The coup has raised concerns among Western allies and democratic nations in Africa. They are apprehensive that it might create an opportunity for Islamist factions operating in the Sahel region to extend their influence and provide Russia with a chance to enhance its presence in the area.

The Russian mercenary group – Wagner, is reportedly involved in the junta’s preparation to ward off any external attack. The group is active in Mali – another West African country under military rule.

The AU also said that it “strongly reject any external interference by any party or country in the affairs of the continent, including private military companies.”

The statement is expected to be a deterrent to France, which has been gearing up to defend its interest in Niger through military action. Niger is France’s top uranium supplier with a total supply of 17.9% between 2015 and 2020. The uranium export, which helps France to generate electricity, has been suspended by the junta.