Flutterwave Gets Banking License To Take On Nigerian Banks

Yesterday witnessed history as the Central Bank of Nigeria, has granted Flutterwave a banking license to function as a full-fledged financial institution.

Flutterwave also declared in another revelation that it has obtained a nationwide microfinance banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). With this milestone, the most valuable fintech on the continent goes from being a payment processor to a direct rival of both digital and traditional banks.

Olugbenga Agboola, the CEO and co-founder of Flutterwave, revealed this in a statement on Thursday.

He said that the accomplishment marked a turning point in the company’s ten-year history.

He pointed out that companies can now easily manage all of their financial activities thanks to the advancement.

“@theflutterwave has announced a Nigerian banking license today. He said on X, “It is a pivotal moment in our ten-year journey to build the financial infrastructure powering Africa’s future.”

For the first stage of the pilot supervision program for virtual asset service providers (VASPs), the Central Bank of Nigeria had chosen Flutterwave, Paystack, and other companies.

Remember that earlier this year, Flutterwave paid up to $40 million for the all-stock acquisition of Nigerian open banking company Mono.

The license enables Flutterwave to bring key parts of the financial value chain in-house that it once relied on partner banks to handle. Key features include the following:

• Direct Deposits: Flutterwave can now hold customer funds and deposits directly.
• Direct Lending: Using its extensive transaction data for underwriting, the company can now issue loans to businesses and individuals.
• Banking Infrastructure: Flutterwave can offer full bank accounts, personal account numbers, and instant transfers.
• Operational Control: By managing the entire payment process, the company expects faster settlement times and lower transaction costs.

This banking license caps a decade-long push for a vertically integrated financial stack.

• Mono Acquisition: Flutterwave bought open-banking startup Mono earlier in 2026, adding a data layer to its new banking powers.
• Competition: It now directly competes with licensed fintechs like OPay, Moniepoint, and Paystack (which recently rebranded an acquisition as Paystack Microfinance Bank), which had earlier gotten a national license from the CBN this year.
• Compliance: As a licensed bank, Flutterwave faces stricter oversight and higher capital requirements from the CBN.

The impact oo Flutterwave customers is that the

• SendApp users: Over a million gain personal account numbers and instant transfers without leaving the app.
• Businesses: More than 2 million merchants can now open accounts, manage payouts, run payroll, and access working capital financing on a single platform.