Agboola landed in Nairobi to meet with the local team and get an audience with CBK, who asked the firm to apply for a new operating license in December. The CBK had previously ordered local banks to stop doing business with Flutterwave in July, citing the company’s lack of a license and freezing its accounts under anti-money laundering laws.
According to Business Daily, Agboola’s visit coincided with the judgment of the High Court, which dismissed the application of over 2,000 Nigerians seeking a share of the frozen Sh6.6 billion on Thursday. These people claim to have been defrauded out of billions of shillings through a sports betting platform that uses Flutterwave for payment processing. However, the dismissal of the suit provided another victory for Flutterwave, as the Kenya Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) withdrew from the case in December.
“CBK invited us in December to re-apply for the remittance and payment service provider license,” Agboola said in an interview with Everyday Business. He added, “Kenya is the bedrock of mobile money. We have identified the gap and have raised capital to invest here. Building a global mobile money payment system cannot be done without Nairobi.”
Flutterwave describes the CEO’s trip to Kenya as a “normal business trip” he takes every quarter. Accompanying Agboola on the trip was Riva Levison, a US lobbyist and PR specialist known for solving challenges for clients in various African governments, including former presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Joyce Banda of Malawi.
In recent months, Agboola has gained recognition beyond his role as CEO of Flutterwave thanks to his investments in other African startups. The Lagos-based company, which was founded in 2016, is now the largest payment processor on the continent and has processed more than 400 million transactions worth more than $25 billion over 35 African countries.
Despite the ARA’s decision to withdraw from the lawsuit, several applications have been filed before the court, either seeking a portion of the frozen funds or freezing the billions. However, the High Court rejected one of the applications yesterday. Justice Esther Maina dismissed the application by Mr. Morris Ebitimi Joseph on behalf of 2,468 Nigerian investors, saying there was no reason to grant the application after ARA signaled its intention to withdraw the case against Flutterwave.