A senior reporter at Techpoint Africa, Chimgozirim Nwokoma, has said Flutterwave’s newly acquired microfinance bank license signals a strategic shift toward lending, as the fintech company seeks to expand beyond payment processing.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Monday, Nwokoma explained that the new license allows Flutterwave to move from simply facilitating transactions to offering core financial services such as deposit holding.
“This allows them to hold deposits… before now… you can’t hold it,” he said.
He noted that under its previous licenses, Flutterwave operated mainly as a payment intermediary, without the ability to retain customer funds or directly engage in lending activities.
“Money just passes through you… but you can’t hold it,” he explained.
With this limitation removed, Nwokoma said the company is now positioned to deepen its business model by capturing more value from the transactions it processes.
“They now want to go a step further… to extract more value from their transactions,” he stated.
According to him, lending is the most logical next step, given its profitability and alignment with Flutterwave’s existing infrastructure.
“Lending is possibly one of the highest-margin businesses you can do,” he added.
Rather than competing directly with traditional banks for retail customers, Nwokoma said Flutterwave is more likely to focus on businesses, where it already has a strong foothold.
“They process payments primarily for businesses… so they can lend based on those payment flows,” he explained.
He emphasized that this approach gives Flutterwave a unique advantage, as it can assess creditworthiness using real-time transaction data rather than relying solely on traditional collateral requirements.
“We see everything that you do in terms of payments… so we can lend to you,” he said.
Nwokoma added that this model could help address financing challenges faced by many businesses, particularly those unable to access loans from conventional financial institutions.
“Businesses can’t get money from banks,” he noted.
He further pointed out that Flutterwave’s recent acquisition of Mono strengthens its data capabilities, potentially improving its ability to evaluate and recover loans.
“They have a better sense of the data that these businesses have,” he said.
Despite these opportunities, he cautioned that execution remains uncertain, as lending carries risks and requires strong systems for credit assessment and recovery.
“How that plays out is an entirely different ballgame,” he stated.
Flutterwave’s new license marks a significant pivot toward lending, positioning the company to leverage its payment data in addressing business financing gaps within Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.
Triumph Ojo
