Flutterwave has closed one of the most challenging links in global digital payments for most African merchants and creators: inability to receive payments from Paypal. Yes, you can pay but you are not allowed to receive, until now. According to the company,  it has a “ collaboration with global payment leader PayPal to enable PayPal customers globally to pay African merchants in the continent through Flutterwave’s platform.

The collaboration will be instrumental in supporting SMEs and freelancers to overcome the many challenges presented by the highly fragmented and complex payment and banking infrastructure, as well as connecting them with more than 377 million PayPal account holders globally.” This is monumental as more people can reach the Western Europe and American customers, out of Africa.

If you are a member of Tekedia Mini-MBA and need support on integrating with Paypal and Flutterwave, we have made resources available to provide guidance. Tekedia already uses this Flutterwave technology – our support team will assist.  We want you to sell globally and internationally.

Again, we congratulate Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, the CEO of Flutterwave, a Tekedia Mini-MBA fintech faculty.

The press release

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, today announces a new collaboration with global payment leader PayPal to enable PayPal customers globally to pay African merchants in the continent through Flutterwave’s platform. The collaboration will be instrumental in supporting SMEs and freelancers to overcome the many challenges presented by the highly fragmented and complex payment and banking infrastructure, as well as connecting them with more than 377 million PayPal account holders globally.

Traditionally, Africa’s ecommerce ecosystem has lacked suitable payment solutions to meet demand for seamless transactions worldwide, further constraining its contributions to the global digital economy. However, this collaboration eliminates significant barriers that have previously hindered African consumers and businesses from the untapped potential of cross-border ecommerce.

Flutterwave has transformed the payments space in Africa by offering flexible, quick and affordable payment services to individuals and businesses across the continent. As of today, African businesses have even more access to sell to global customers using PayPal’s secure platform to receive and make payments online. Cross-border ecommerce continues to provide significant growth opportunities for Africa’s economy. Research firm Statista estimates that the total value of ecommerce in Africa generated $16.5 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $29 billion by 2022. This growth potential will provide many opportunities for SMEs and freelancers worldwide, subsequently increasing Africa’s share of global trade.

This announcement solidifies Flutterwave’s position as the global African payments partner of choice for multinationals looking to enter new markets, further reassuring new and existing merchants and investors of Flutterwave’s global capabilities, secured platform and high standards of safety.

Speaking on the announcement, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, said: “We are excited to bring PayPal’s fully integrated services to businesses across Africa. The collaboration reinforces our vision of creating a seamless digital payments system for Africa’s business communities that can now transact with international consumers.

“By working with PayPal, we can further strengthen our commitment to our customers and service users as we will be enabling them to transact and expand their business operations to reach new markets. PayPal’s global reach is unrivalled and collaborating with them allows our customers to explore new markets where PayPal is embedded.

“Through our collaboration with PayPal, we are also bringing together two trusted global payment brands to provide millions of consumers and businesses a gateway to new opportunities,” he said.

Since inception, Flutterwave has processed over 140 million transactions worth over USD $9 billion worldwide and continues to expand its footprint to ensure consumers and merchants receive the best-in-class digital payment service. This collaboration further underscores its commitment to ensuring merchants have vast opportunities to deliver services and conveniently transact through its platform.

Just last year 2020, PayPal‘s 377 million+ users made transactions that saw PayPal end the year with a $936 billion total payment volume for the year 2020. This trillion dollar opportunity didn’t include most African businesses until this new integration between Flutterwave and PayPal.

I just read a new threat from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) informing the federal government of Nigeria that it could resume its suspended 9-month strike if the government does not honour its agreement to pay its members on time. First, the federal government is wrong to have promised what it knew it could not easily do. Secondly, ASUU was naïve to have believed everything in that document.

This is the reality: Nigeria cannot fund our current university system. If you check our national education budget, it is way smaller than what Harvard University spends! In short, Harvard spends close to 3x what Nigeria budgets for the ministry of education, from primary to university levels.

The problem is complicated because the professors are part of the problems. Yes, everyone wants to be a Vice Chancellor and the more schools established, the higher the number of opportunities. So, as politicians mushroom opening new schools (not necessarily for increasing access for students), professors have hailed them. For most politicians, it is simple: locate a university in your local government and be remembered eternally for that achievement. 

And for the professors, that is another opportunity for more VCs, DVCs, and all those administrative positions. So, at the end, we are scaling university bureaucracy even when the main academic and research work suffers.

More than 80% of federal universities which have been started since 2000 could have been colleges within existing university systems, under unified administrations. By the time you run the numbers, and if Nigeria followed that model of administrative efficiency, that nation could be saving billions of naira which will then go into actual learning. Today, what do we have? Bureaucratic systems where a former VC of Kwara State University could buy a bulletproof Toyota at the cost of N74 million as an official car, even when the school borrows N400 million monthly to pay salaries!

For decades, ASUU strikes have not achieved much – and there is no certainty that future strikes can have different outcomes. The problem of ASUU is a mirror of Nigeria’s problems: no accountability and responsibility. Yes, how do you expect a governor to pay your salaries and expect him to allow you to run the school in Nigeria? You want autonomy except financial autonomy. None of this generation of political leaders will hand you the cheque books and relinquish power, strike or no strike!

About two months before he was to leave office, in 2019, as vice-chancellor of Kwara State University, Abdulrasheed Na’Allah wrote to then Kwara State governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, asking for a N74 million official vehicle; a vehicle he would go away with after he left office. This was despite the institution borrowing almost N400 million monthly to pay salaries, according to a panel that later probed the decision.

The N74 million vehicle was part of the N100 million severance package that the panel indicted the vice-chancellor of going away with under controversial circumstances. The professor was given a chance to defend himself before the panel. He did not.

ASUU Statement

“While ASUU as a union and her members as individuals in various branches have remained faithful to this agreement by returning to classes and performing their respective duties, the Federal Government, true to type, has reneged on its part.

“Contrary to FGN affirmation of its commitment to pay all withheld salaries of ASUU members who have not enrolled in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information system (IPPIS), three months after the suspension of Strike, thousands of ASUU members across various branch are still being owed salaries.

 “Instead of deploying the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) software developed by ASUU, which has been adjudged effective for payment of salaries, some of our members are still being denied their salaries and others are being coerced by agents of the government to register on the repressive IPPIS for payment of salaries.

“The Union ASUU and her members are made to suffer from all the aforementioned attacks by the federal government while the public expects our members, some of who now live on the charity of family members and colleagues for survival to use their personal resources to discharge their duties diligently in the universities.

“These harsh conditions would have terrible consequences on public tertiary education in Nigeria and when push eventually comes to shove, as it definitely will in no distant future, the Nigerian public should accordingly blame the Federal Government for its insincerity.

“Blame the federal government of Nigeria if the universities are shut down again.”

The unemployment rate in Nigeria closed Q4 2020 at 33.3%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Simply, 23.2 million people remain unemployed. That is like depression! With that level of unemployment, how can you sell your products and services? Yes, the challenge goes beyond having great products. I mean you must find a pricing mechanism which will ensure that people can buy them.

Increasingly, that mechanism must include sachetization. In a struggling economy, think beyond powdered milk, to practically everything, when you hear that word “sachet”!

What is your sachetization strategy?

The core market segment in Africa – middle of the pyramid

This is the age of sachetization in Nigeria irrespective of whatever you are selling. We are doing it in Tekedia Mini-MBA with bands for core courses, review of labs, projects supervision, etc. Having broken all into “sachets”, our members have the freedom to pick as they need. If we had lumped all together, resistance to conversion would mount. Pay attention to your pricing playbook – it is a key factor now to success in Nigeria.

What Is Your Sachetization Playbook in Nigeria?