Flutterwave buys Mono for open banking push
On January 5, Africa’s leading payments technology firm, Flutterwave, announced its acquisition of Mono—a pioneer in open banking infrastructure across the continent. The deal deepens Flutterwave’s long-term commitment to building a connected, interoperable financial system for Africa.
According to the announcement, Mono will continue to operate independently, with no changes to its team, leadership structure, or everyday operations. Flutterwave’s stake allows strategic alignment rather than operational control, enabling Mono to maintain its pace of innovation.
The Acquisition’s Impact
The acquisition reflects a growing recognition that the next phase of Africa’s payments growth will be driven less by card rails and more by bank-based, authenticated, and locally relevant payment methods. By integrating Mono’s open banking APIs, Flutterwave strengthens its ability to support faster onboarding, improved verification, reduced fraud, and seamless account-to-account payments.
Flutterwave’s founder and CEO, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, commented on the acquisition, stating that it reflects how the company thinks about the future of financial infrastructure in Africa. He added that “payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos” and that open banking provides the connective tissue.
Expanding Alternative Payment Methods
The collaboration between Flutterwave and Mono will create a path for expanding into richer alternative payment methods, authenticated payment flows, and, in time, open banking-enabled stablecoin use cases. Mono’s CEO and founder, Abdulhamid Hassan, said, “Mono’s capabilities across financial data access, direct bank payments, and identity verification, combined with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale and global reach, create something more defensible and full. This acquisition allows us to build the infrastructure layer that powers the next generation of African fintech at the speed and scale the continent deserves,” he added.
Since their first partnership with Flutterwave in 2021, Mono has seen the power of a coordinated effort in its mission to unlock Africa’s open banking potential. The combination of Mono’s capabilities and Flutterwave’s scale and global reach creates something more defensible and full.
