Flutterwave has announced the launch of Moneywave — a solution that allows small individuals and merchants make and receive payments in whatever form they choose. What this means is that as a merchant in Nigeria who wants to send a payment to Kenya, you need not worry about owing an mPesa balance and neither does the receiving party. Both parties can transact in local currencies.
The announcement was made by CEO of Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, in an interview with Techcrunch.
According to him, the payment system in Africa is fragmented. “What we’re trying to do is remove the barriers between these payment instruments and channels, Aboyeji said. “If what you have is mPesa, you should be able to pay into someone’s bank account. You can charge people’s cards. You can accept payments via a link on Instagram,” Iyinoluwa Aboyeji affirms.
Moneywave is an API layer that can be integrated into business platforms, allowing payment — bank transfer, card and cash — to be made and received in any format by the recipient.
However, all of this comes at a flat fee which Iyinoluwa says is a fraction of what merchants might incur if they had to navigate the various payment instruments manually.
This is definitely a good one from the ex-Andela founder whose company, Flutterwave, got incubated into Y Combinator program in August.We’d keep observing the progress of Moneywave to see if it fulfils it promises.
Nigerian startups raised $17.6m in Q1 2019, 8.5% higher than they did in Q1 2018. Find out more in the latest quarterly edition of the Nigerian Startup Funding Report here.
Lead Venture Analyst at Techpoint. Eager to tell startup stories that offer Nigerians the much needed creative solutions to relate-able problems. Get in touch.
