Flutterwave Buys Mono For Open Banking
Flutterwave, a leading African payments technology firm, acquired Mono on January 5 to bolster its open banking infrastructure. Mono is a pioneer in this field across the continent.
Strategic Move for African Financial Systems
The acquisition is part of Flutterwave’s long-term plan to build a connected financial system for Africa. It aims to make open banking a core part of the region’s alternative payment methods. This deepens the company’s commitment to building a connected, interoperable financial system that positions open banking as a foundational pillar for the region’s payment evolution.
Mono offers an API-driven platform. It provides secure access to identity verification, financial data, and account-to-account payments. These features are vital as African markets move toward data-led financial services. These capabilities are critical as markets shift toward more trusted, data-led financial services, providing the connective tissue for the next phase of payments growth.
Under the deal, Mono will continue to operate independently. Its team, leadership, and daily operations will not change. Flutterwave’s stake is for strategic alignment, not operational control, which allows Mono to maintain its pace of innovation while contributing its infrastructure to Flutterwave’s ecosystem.
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Expanding Payment Capabilities
Integrating Mono’s APIs will strengthen Flutterwave’s services. The company stated this will support faster onboarding, improved verification, and reduced fraud. It also enables seamless account-to-account payments. This reflects a growing recognition that future payments will be driven less by card rails and more by bank-based, authenticated, and locally relevant methods.
The collaboration will also expand into richer alternative payment methods. Future plans include authenticated payment flows and open banking-enabled stablecoin use cases, creating a path for more diverse and innovative financial solutions.
Flutterwave’s CEO, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, commented on the acquisition. He said it reflects the company’s vision for Africa’s financial infrastructure. Agboola emphasized that payments, data, and trust need to be connected. “Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space,” he added, noting the acquisition expands possibilities while staying grounded in security and local relevance.
Mono’s founder and CEO, Abdulhamid Hassan, added that his team built Mono to unlock Africa’s open banking potential. He noted the partnership with Flutterwave since 2021 has shown the power of coordinated effort. Hassan believes the combined capabilities will build a more full infrastructure for the next generation of African fintech, creating something more defensible and full at the speed and scale the continent deserves.
