Flutterwave has made buying and paying for items in African local stores easy for shoppers abroad, according to the firm’s Chief Regulatory Affairs, and Government Relations Officer.
Olubankole Falade said that there are zero barriers to sales and business growth for grassroots small businesses in Nigeria with Flutterwave’s technology.
He made this known when Olayinka David-West, Associate dean of the Lagos Business School shared concerns around the accessibility of emerging technologies in Nigeria at the grassroots in a panel session of the event organised by the American Business Council of Nigeria (ABC).
The second economic update event themed “Multisectoral Impact of Emerging Technologies and Best Options for their Adoption” was in partnership with Lagos Business School, and Pan-Atlantic University.
According to Falade, Flutterwave has proprietary Application Programming Interface (API) technology that allows individuals to pay businesses through various modes of payments including — cards, mobile money, and QR, depending on what markets and payment methods are acceptable in that market.
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According to the statement by the firm, Flutterwave’s effort to support small businesses took a leap during the lockdown in 2020 when the company launched the Flutterwave Store as part of its ‘Keeping the Lights on Campaign’ to support small businesses during the pandemic.
This campaign helped small businesses in Africa to sell online easily and has helped bring over 30,000 small businesses online to date.
In addition, Flutterwave launched Market—an extension of its Flutterwave Store service – that brings together a collection of merchant stores in one place to help scale small businesses’ growth.
Meanwhile, Falilat Jimoh, Manager, Digital Architect, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), who represented Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, DG/CEO of the Agency, emphasized the need for the private sector to respond positively to invitations from the government for collaboration.
She said: “For emerging technologies to succeed, the right environment needs to be created and both private and public contributions need to be made,” she said.
The event, however, concluded with a general consensus that there is a need for trust to be built between the private and public sectors.
