Why Flutterwave Partnered With Worldpay For Online Card Payments in Africa
Why Flutterwave Partnered With Worldpay For Online Card Payments in Africa
Businesses looking to expand into Africa mostly face one significant hurdle: the inability to accept online card payments using bank cards in Nigeria.
Spotify is one such example. Since the music streaming service launched in the country in March, many Nigerians have complained about their inability to pay for a subscription.
Typically, a mid-sized business in, say Europe, will have one or two e-payment partners. Worldpay, the payment processing platform gotten by Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) in 2019, could be one of them.
The Need For FinTech Collaborations
When a business expands into Nigeria, it becomes more difficult to manage payments for their customers. It is relatively simple for large companies (such as Spotify) to find a local partner who can connect them to Nigeria's electronic payment network. However, what about the thousands of small businesses that lack such attraction factors?
It is where cross-continental collaborations between payment companies, such as the one between Flutterwave and FIS, are critical.
The collaboration was announced in January 2020, when FIS invested in Flutterwave's $35 million Series B round. Flutterwave was also a 2016 graduate of the FIS fintech accelerator program.
A significant strategic objective was to establish the Nigerian fintech startup as the preferred partner for businesses looking to expand into Africa, particularly those offering financial services.
“Through this collaboration, any Worldpay merchant in Europe or the United States will be able to accept any African payment. When someone uses an African card to pay for Netflix, it just works,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola explained at the time.
Flutterwave and Worldpay Users
Flutterwave acts as a single point of entry for Worldpay users into Africa. It means that businesses operating on a global scale that relies on Worldpay's services can now accept payments from customers in Africa.
Flutterwave's integration with Worldpay is currently only available in Nigeria and South Africa, the continent's two largest economies. In both countries, e-commerce via mobile phones is growing; by 2024, the sector is expected to be worth $31 billion in Nigeria and $9 billion in South Africa, according to FIS's 2021 Global Payments Report.
Likewise, African countries may be added to the network in the future, depending on the growth of e-commerce.
Flutterwave's big picture is that FIS, a publicly-traded multibillion-dollar Fortune 500 company, possesses the muscle necessary to expand Worldpay globally. FIS announced this week that it now has a license to offer Worldpay in Malaysia.
It broadens the acceptance of Flutterwave-enabled card payments from Africa, contributing to global discussions about a digitally connected world of commerce.
“As the growth of digital transactions opens up new markets and opportunities for global enterprises, merchants are seeking secure payment platforms to conduct business in these markets,” Agboola explained.
“Our collaboration with FIS enables us to connect global businesses with African markets and local merchants with the rest of the world.”
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