In February 2022, two days after pan-African fintech giant Flutterwave raised $250 million in a series D raise, the company held an event where it announced, amongst other things, that it would integrate Google Pay and Apple Pay into its suite of payment options. Today, the company is making good on its promise about Google Pay, as users of the global payment service can now use it for transactions with merchants on Flutterwave’s stores.
This follows the company’s recent integration of Nigeria’s digital currency, the e-Naira, into its platform, enabling buyers and sellers to transact directly with the cryptocurrency. With these moves, it is clear that Flutterwave is on a mission to enable swift and variegated payment solutions for its users.
Google Pay was designed to enable safe, seamless and contactless payments for users. It uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to facilitate fund transfers for retailers in physical stores. Users can also save their card details into the Google Wallet service and make online or in-app payments.
Currently available across 42 countries to users with Android phones, tablets, or smartwatches, Google Pay is a widely used payment option in Africa, and Flutterwave’s decision to make this service available for Africans is commendable. With this integration, Google Pay users worldwide can pay businesses on Flutterwave within an average transaction completion time of 3 minutes. According to Flutterwave, this move will reduce the cart abandonment rate for its online businesses.
In a statement shared with TechCabal, Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave’s founder and CEO, expressed convictions that the Google Pay integration will connect global customers to businesses on Flutterwave.
“The continued and rapid growth of Flutterwave is due to our commitment to building a platform with simplified payments for everyone. The GooglePay payment option will attract more international customers and increase the current success rates for businesses on Flutterwave. Integrating with Google pay will allow users across the globe to participate in the booming e-commerce ecosystem in Africa. It will enable us to further fulfil our promise of creating endless possibilities for all,” he said
Meanwhile, Flutterwave is not making this integration automatic for the 30,000 merchants on its platform. Interested merchants would have to opt in manually from their dashboards.
