As Flutterwave, Nigeria’s foremost technology payment platform, signs a collaboration deal with Paypal, a global payment giant, to enable PayPal users anywhere in the world pay African merchants directly using Flutterwave platform, Flutterwave Co-founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, says this is connecting Africa to the world when it comes to payment.
The deal which was announced Tuesday, will see small business owners and freelancers who use Flutterwave in places like Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique and Senegal being able to accept payments from PayPal users worldwide.
Flutterwave states that the integration with PayPal is live and operational across 50 African countries and worldwide.
Agboola said the partnership reinforces the Nigerian company’s vision of “creating a seamless digital payments system for Africa’s business communities that can now transact with international consumers.”
According to him, “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.
“As we build the largest payment infrastructure in Africa we also know that Africa does not exist in isolation. We need to connect Africa to the world when it comes to payments and we took a closer step to that today.”
Highlighting the benefit of the partnership, Agboola said: “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.”
The move comes barely a week after Flutterwave announced the close of a $170 million Series C round which values it as a unicorn.
People in the US and other countries where PayPal is available will see “Pay with PayPal” on a Flutterwave merchant’s checkout page, provided the merchant has enabled the option.
“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.
Founded in 1998, PayPal was one of the first companies to create the internet’s infrastructure for cross-border payments. As of 2020, it had 377 million customers in more than 200 countries. Those customers transacted $936 billion in payment volume in 2020.
Flutterwave has continued to position itself as the answer to the challenges of a suitable payments system, which had beset Africa’s eCommerce ecosystem, and the collaboration will significantly eliminate barriers that have previously hindered African consumers and businesses from the untapped potential of cross-border eCommerce.
Since its 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.
