Standard Bank taps Flutterwave in digital transformation for African customers

FLUTTERWAVE AND STANDARD BANK, TWO WELL REGARD ED BUSINESSES in Africa have teamed up to explore digital transformation frontiers in the areas of e-commerce, card issuing, payments, collections, USSD, lending, and buynow-pay-later for millions of Africans.

The collaboration will also be channelled to enhance digital payments experiences for customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Cote D’Ivoire and Malawi.

Both companies say they are working to help customers, including individuals, SMEs, large companies and institutions fully leverage the power of digital payments and e-commerce to grow their businesses, as well as provide Standard Bank with agile technology solutions to help its customers grow their businesses online and offline.

Demola Sogunle, chief executive officer, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, a member of the Standard Bank Group, who spoke on the importance of the partnership to the bank customers, said the payment tech company will bring about the adoption of digital strategies to improve services and processes.

“In its over three decades of existence, Stanbic IBTC has a rich heritage of serving customers and contributing to the growth of the Nigerian economy.

At Stanbic IBTC, we see Nigeria as our home and we drive her growth. The selection of Flutterwave as our digital transformation partner reflects our resolve to deliver real impact and opportunities to our various customers.

It is also a reflection of our mission to adopt digital strategies to improve our services and processes, being an innovation-driven financial institution.”

Also, Olugbenga Agboola, founder and chief executive officer, Flutterwave, in his comments on the partnership, said: “We are proud that Flutterwave’s white-label services power digital efforts for top banks in Africa. Our partnership with Standard Bank demonstrates that fintechs and banks are not competitors but trusted partners with the key focus being the customer.

“We plan to grow financial and digital inclusion through this partnership and in the long run, we expect to generate more jobs in the digital economy and enable rapid business growth across the continent,” he said.

Eric Fajemisin, head, wholesale clients, Stanbic IBTC Bank, who also spoke during the announcement, said: “One of the mandates on our evolution to a client segment-led organisation is to partner with trusted partners in our ecosystem to meet our clients’ needs. This partnership with Flutterwave is one that gives credence to that and enables us to connect with our clients via digital platforms further reiterating our well-earned status as their partner as they also transform within their businesses.”

On the benefits of the Flutterwave partnership to the financial institution’s customers, Olu Delano, head, client coverage, Stanbic IBTC Bank, said: “Our collaboration with Flutterwave is a testament to a renewed drive and focus on our future-ready transformation ambition. With our clients as the focus and centre of this partnership, we are building a platform and payment system to support our customers and their targeted ecosystem across Africa, ultimately delivering exceptional service and enhancing the customer experience.”