Flutterwave Finally Integrates Google Pay Into Its Payment Options

Nigeria’s fintech startup, Flutterwave has finally integrated Google Pay into its payment options more than 7 months after its announcement.

TechBooky would recall that in February this year, two days after the global merchant and service provider raised a whopping $250 million in a Series D round, the company at an event for the raise announced new changes to its purview and one of them is the notification to its esteemed customers that it would integrate Google Pay and Apple Pay into its payment options.

The company on Thursday, September 22, 2022, has now launched the move, allowing users of the pan-African fintech giant the leverage to adopt it for transactions with merchants on Flutterwave’s stores. 

This is coming on the heels of the company’s recent integration of the E-Naira into its platform. E-Naira is Central Bank of Nigeria-issued digital currency with the mandate of providing a unique form of money denominated in Naira, even as it serves as both a medium of exchange and a store of value, offering better payment prospects in retail transactions when compared to cash payments.

Flutterwave sees integration of the Nigeria’s digital currency as a means of enabling buyers and sellers to transact directly with the cryptocurrency, with the bigger intention of having a swift and variegated payment solution for its users.

Now, here comes Google Pay integration: designed also to enable safe, seamless, and contactless payments for its esteemed users, while also using a near-field communication (NFC) technology to facilitate fund transfers for retailers in physical stores. Millions of its users can also save their card details into the Google Wallet service and make online or in-app payments. 

Google Pay, a mobile payment service developed by Google to power in-app, online, and in-person contactless purchases on mobile devices, that allows make payments with Android phones, tablets, or watches, is at the moment available across 42 countries, with it being accepted as a widely used payment option in Africa, and hence the decision of Flutterwave’s to bring this lofty service viable for Africans is a step-up decision.

The implication of this integration is that users of Google Pay throughout the world can now pay businesses on Flutterwave within an average transaction completion time of 3 minutes. Flutterwave also announced that this move will reduce the cart abandonment rate for its online businesses.

The fintech startup in a statement by its founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, says it believes the Google Pay integration will connect global customers to businesses on Flutterwave.

“The continued and rapid growth of Flutterwave is due to our commitment to building a platform with simplified payments for everyone. The Google Pay payment option will attract more international customers and increase the current success rates for businesses on Flutterwave. Integrating with Google pay will allow users across the globe to participate in the booming e-commerce ecosystem in Africa. It will enable us to further fulfil our promise of creating endless possibilities for all,” he said.

It should be noted that the integration for the 30,000 merchants on the Flutterwave platform will not be automatic, as interested merchants would have to opt in manually from their dashboards.