Economy
Flutterwave Insists on IPO Despite Controversies
By Adedapo Adesanya
Flutterwave, Africa’s largest startup, is pressing ahead with plans for an initial public offering (IPO) despite controversies about the unicorn and its co-founder, Mr Olugbenga Agboola.
According to the firm’s CEO, who came under intense scrutiny following a series of allegations and his denial of his involvement in such, the company is forging ahead with its planned listings because it is very crucial to realise its targets.
Mr Agboola, in an interview with Bloomberg, said going public has become necessary for the company to attract large global clients.
According to the publication, Mr Agboola brushed aside accusations that it had refused to honour former employees’ stock rights and that staff were harassed and bullied.
According to him, these were “very, very isolated” cases, and they wouldn’t affect the planned share sale.
“There’s some kind of customers we’ll attract when we are public. The large global clients need you to have the same level of compliance and level of global view that they have,” Mr Agboola was quoted in the interview.
He added that the company, which was recently embroiled in controversies in Kenya, has won approval for the first step in securing the right to operate in the country.
Business Post understands that a time for the IPO was not announced by the Flutterwave CEO as the current market environment was not “great right now.”
The company had previously mulled a double listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
Mr Agboola was the face of public scrutiny in 2022 when he faced allegations bothering on harassment and bullying. The company also took a hit in July last year, when the Kenyan High Court froze Flutterwave’s bank accounts under anti-money laundering rules, and the country’s central bank said it wasn’t licensed to operate payments services in the country.
Despite these, Flutterwave said that its payment processing business through its payments app, SendApp, increased 23-fold in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2022.
Payments through point-of-sale devices rose more than fivefold, and revenue in its small and medium business units jumped almost fourfold.
Mr Agboola sees the company growing its presence in the markets it is currently in and possibly seeking acquisitions to further its reach.
“The goal is to make merchants across Africa, consumers across Africa use us more and know that we are the most reliable platform to use,” he said. “Africa is huge; the potential is huge,” he said.
Since its founding in 2016, Flutterwave has rapidly expanded and now has a presence in about 30 African countries. The company’s valuation is at $3 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is seeking a reduction in import duty exemptions, which rose to N34 trillion, limiting its ability to increase its revenue generation threshold.
The Comptroller-General of the Customs Service, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed that the value of import duty exemption certificate approvals increased to that level in 2025, describing the policy as one of the major factors restricting its revenue generation.
At an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja on Monday, Mr Adeniyi explained that government fiscal policies have continued to impact the revenue-generating capacity of the Customs Service, both positively and negatively.
“The NCS would have generated significantly higher revenue over the years if not for government-approved import duty waivers and other external factors affecting collections,” he said.
He added that the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, accounted for about N34 trillion in approvals in 2025, with nearly 60 per cent covering duty-free importation of military hardware due to Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.
Other government-backed duty waivers, he noted, covered the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
While acknowledging the impact of the waivers on Customs revenue, Mr Adeniyi argued that fiscal policy should not be assessed solely on the basis of revenue generation but also on its broader economic and social objectives.
He, however, urged the federal government to establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver the intended economic outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production and improved healthcare access.
The committee also expressed displeasure over the absence of several heads of government agencies invited to the hearing, including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Mr Sani Musa, warned that the affected chief executives must appear at the committee’s next sitting or face severe sanctions under the Senate’s rules.
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By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rose by 0.40 per cent on Monday, July 13, buoyed by buying interest in 11 Plc, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and UBN Property Plc, which offset the profit-taking in Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of Chicken Republic.
11 Plc gained N20.69 to end at N227.64 per share compared with last Friday’s price of N206.95 per share, CSCS Plc grew by N1.83 to N91.48 per unit from N89.65 per unit, and UBN Property Plc added 1 Kobo to sell at N1.81 per share versus N1.80 per share.
On the flip side, Food Concepts Plc depreciated by 24 Kobo to close at N2.45 per unit, in contrast to the preceding session’s N2.69 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation increased by N9.2 billion to N2.587 trillion from N2.578 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) improved by 15.33 points to 4,311.67 points from 4,296.34 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors surged by 615.9 per cent to 9.1 million units from the previous 1.3 million units, and the value of securities rose by 997.1 per cent to N320.4 million from the preceding session’s N29.2 million, while the number of deals decreased by 12.5 per cent to 28 deals from last Friday’s 32 deals.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 73.9 million units exchanged for N5.2 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units transacted for N415.7 million.
