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Flutterwave has received a banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), allowing the fintech giant to move beyond payments and offer broader financial services to businesses across Africa.
This comes after the company disclosed a processing of over $40 billion in transactions in the past decade. This approval allows businesses to access banking tools, manage funds and scale operations on a single platform.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola, made the announcement in a statement on Thursday, saying the development represents a major milestone in the company’s growth and ambition to build a more integrated financial system.
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“Today, Flutterwave announces a Nigerian banking license. It is a defining step in our 10-year journey to build the financial infrastructure powering Africa’s future.
“A decade ago, we started with a simple belief: better infrastructure changes everything. Payments failed too often, settlement was slow, and expanding meant rebuilding from scratch. So we focused on connecting what was fragmented,” the CEO said.
Flutterwave, founded in 2016, began as a payment infrastructure provider focused on simplifying cross-border transactions and has since expanded across multiple African markets. The new licence follows its rapid growth and recent strategic moves, including the acquisition of Mono.
“With the acquisition of Mono earlier this year, we deepened that connectivity. Now we are going further by building a unified platform where businesses can open accounts, accept and send payments, manage payouts, run payroll, and operate across currencies in one place, with access to lending and working capital powered by real transaction data,” he explained.
“We can now build, innovate and solve customer problems faster than before because we now control the value chain of payments in Nigeria. Our destiny is now in our hands,” Agboola added.
The development emphasises Flutterwave’s push to deliver end-to-end financial services, showing a growing convergence between fintech firms and traditional banking as demand for integrated digital finance solutions continues to rise.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has constituted a high-powered legal team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, to challenge the judgment of the Federal High Court in Lagos which nullified its takeover of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc and ordered the reinstatement of the bank’s former board.
The apex bank, in a notice of appeal filed on March 26, 2026, is contesting the March 25 judgment delivered by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, which held that the CBN acted beyond its statutory powers in dissolving the bank’s board and management.
The CBN, in its appeal, raised 11 grounds urging the appellate court to set aside the entire decision of the lower court.
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It argued that its intervention in Union Bank was backed by provisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, citing the bank’s deteriorating financial condition at the time.
According to the apex bank, evidence before the trial court showed that Union Bank had a negative capital adequacy ratio, a capital shortfall exceeding N224 billion, and a high volume of non-performing loans, necessitating urgent regulatory action.
The CBN maintained that under Section 34 of BOFIA, it has the power to remove directors and officers of a distressed bank, while Section 51 protects actions taken in good faith in the course of its statutory duties.
It faulted the trial court’s interpretation of these provisions, describing the judgment as a miscarriage of justice.
The apex bank further contended that the court erred in declaring its actions unlawful, ultra vires and unconstitutional, as well as nullifying decisions taken by the management it appointed without establishing any legal basis for reinstating the former board.
Meanwhile, the CBN has filed a motion on notice seeking a stay of execution of the judgment pending the determination of the appeal.
In the application, it urged the court to restrain the reinstated directors and other respondents from taking control of the bank, interfering with its management, convening meetings, or altering its governance structure.
