African fintech giant sees sharp rise in Africa-Asia transactions

Flutterwave Inc, an Africa-focused fintech firm, says its transactions between the continent and East Asia surged to nearly US$1bn in the first half of 2025, compared with negligible volumes a year ago.

Flutterwave, founded by Nigeria-born Olugbenga Agboola, processes payments for businesses and individuals across Africa and beyond. Headquartered in the United States, Flutterwave is estimated to be worth US$3bn and is backed by B Capital and Tiger Global. It has only recently received an operating license in Nigeria. The permit from the Central bank of Nigeria will allow Flutterwave to process fund transfers between banks and fintech, handle card transactions and engage in other e-payment services without an intermediary. One of its first major deals was in 2016, when it became Uber’s payments processor in Africa. The license come at a time when the firm is planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Nasdaq.

In the first six months of this year, Flutterwave signed partnerships with large-scale enterprise merchants from East Asia to make it easier for African businesses to pay suppliers in the region. Flutterwave manages the full process from collection to settlement, helping to eliminate reliance on expensive and slow international wire transfers. Making payments to Chinese suppliers has historically been difficult and expensive for small traders in Africa. Banks tend to prioritise larger traders, and the process of converting African currencies into US dollars and then into Chinese yuan incurs various costs and administrative burdens.

Among its new partners is Skyee, a Hong Kong-based payments platform for e-commerce businesses, which is working with Flutterwave to make money flows between Africa and Asia simpler and faster. Flutterwave has also teamed up with NoraFirst, a Beijing-based payments company, which seeks to leverage Flutterwave’s infrastructure to scale into African markets. 

Flutterwave’s expansion comes as Asia cements its role as Africa’s largest trading partner. In 2017, Asia overtook the European Union as the continent’s largest source of imports, and its share has since risen to 28.5%. Machinery, electronics, vehicles, mineral fuels and cereals dominate these inflows.

Asia has also become Africa’s biggest export market, accounting for 25.6% of shipments in 2024. China and India dominate the trade, together taking 84.4% of Africa’s exports to Asia. China has been the continent’s largest trading partner for the past 15 years, with bilateral trade reaching $296bn in 2024. Trade ties are poised to deepen further after Beijing announced plans to remove tariffs on imports from all 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations.

 

References

‘Flutterwave processes nearly $1 billion in Africa–Asia transactions in H1 2025’, Nairametrics, 12 August 2025

‘East Asia brings boom to African fintech unicorn Flutterwave’, Semafor, 15 August 2025

‘Flutterwave closes USD $250m in Series D funding, valuation rises to over USD $3bn’, Flutterwave, 16 February 2022

‘About us’, Skyee, Accessed 25 August 2025

‘Flutterwave partners with Skyee to power cross-border payments between Africa and Asia’, Wearetech.africa, 23 July 2025

‘Flutterwave, NoraFirst team up to boost Africa–East Asia trade payments’, Tech Labari, 09 July 2025

‘African Trade Report 2025’, African Export-Import Bank, 2025

‘Half year review 2025’, Flutterwave, Accessed 25 August 2025