Flutterwave, a Pan-African fintech Unicorn, announced that it is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock exchange despite mounting allegations of financial impropriety. We reported yesterday that a Kenyan High court recently gave the order to freeze another Sh400.6 million ($3.3 million) in banks, M-Pesa linked to the country.
Remember that the same Kenyan high court reportedly froze Sh7 billion ($59.2 million) belonging to foreign nationals and entities including Flutterwave in July 2022. The Lagos-based company is still trying to sort out issues with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) as it recently ordered all financial institutions in Kenya to stop dealing with the company because “they are operating without licensing and authorisation by CBK.”
Flutterwave has consistently denied the various claims of financial improprieties in Kenya, saying they are entirely false
According to Chief Financial Officer Oneal Bhambani, the company intends to use the funds to expand operations in its existing markets and enter new ones in Africa.
“We have the attractive market potential and opportunity to do so now,” Bhambani said in an interview Friday. The listing is an initiative of the payments company that’s “reaching the scale and trajectory comparable to what other investors seemed to invest in the public markets,” he said, without giving further details.
Bloomberg reports that the company is going into lending and that Flutterwave Capital will provide collateral-free, digital loans to business owners in Nigeria.
Valued at more than $3 billion, Flutterwave says it has processed 200-million financial transactions valued at about $16bn since it began operations.
