New collaboration unlocks opportunity for African businesses to do business around the world
San Francisco, 16 March 2021: Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, today announces a new collaboration with global payment leader PayPal to enable PayPal customers globally to pay African merchants in the continent through Flutterwave’s platform. The collaboration will be instrumental in supporting SMEs and freelancers to overcome the many challenges presented by the highly fragmented and complex payment and banking infrastructure, as well as connecting them with more than 377 million PayPal account holders globally.
Traditionally, Africa’s ecommerce ecosystem has lacked suitable payment solutions to meet demand for seamless transactions worldwide, further constraining its contributions to the global digital economy. However, this collaboration eliminates significant barriers that have previously hindered African consumers and businesses from the untapped potential of cross-border ecommerce.
Flutterwave has transformed the payments space in Africa by offering flexible, quick and affordable payment services to individuals and businesses across the continent. As of today, African businesses have even more access to sell to global customers using PayPal’s secure platform to receive and make payments online. Cross-border ecommerce continues to provide significant growth opportunities for Africa’s economy. Research firm Statista estimates that the total value of ecommerce in Africa generated $16.5 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $29 billion by 2022. This growth potential will provide many opportunities for SMEs and freelancers worldwide, subsequently increasing Africa’s share of global trade.
This announcement solidifies Flutterwave’s position as the global African payments partner of choice for multinationals looking to enter new markets, further reassuring new and existing merchants and investors of Flutterwave’s global capabilities, secured platform and high standards of safety.
Speaking on the announcement, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, said: “We are excited to bring PayPal’s fully integrated services to businesses across Africa. The collaboration reinforces our vision of creating a seamless digital payments system for Africa’s business communities that can now transact with international consumers.
“By working with PayPal, we can further strengthen our commitment to our customers and service users as we will be enabling them to transact and expand their business operations to reach new markets. PayPal’s global reach is unrivalled and collaborating with them allows our customers to explore new markets where PayPal is embedded.
“Through our collaboration with PayPal, we are also bringing together two trusted global payment brands to provide millions of consumers and businesses a gateway to new opportunities,” he said.
Since inception, Flutterwave has processed over 140 million transactions worth over USD $9 billion worldwide and continues to expand its footprint to ensure consumers and merchants receive the best-in-class digital payment service. This collaboration further underscores its commitment to ensuring merchants have vast opportunities to deliver services and conveniently transact through its platform.