Yesterday during the July Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press briefing in Kenya, the Central Bank of Kenya, through its Governor Dr Patrick Njoroge, made an official statement stating that Flutterwave and Chipper cash are not licensed and therefore should not operate in Kenya.
“Flutterwave is not licensed to operate as a remittance provider or payments service provider in Kenya,” Dr Njoroge said. “They are not licensed to operate and therefore, they should not be operating and I think Chipper Cash, we should also say the same.”
In 2021, Flutterwave received worldwide recognition for becoming an African fintech unicorn. According to a report by Aljazeera, Flutterwave has processed transactions valued at more than $16 billion in dozens of African countries.
However, as they say, when it rains, it pours. This news has come at the heel of the recent money laundering scandal involving Flutterwave. Kenya’s Asset Recovery Agency which investigates and recovers proceeds of crime accused the Nigerian company of fraud and money laundering. The company denied claims of any involvement in the money laundering scandal that had USD60 million frozen by the High Court of Kenya Judge Esther Maina.
“Claims of financial improprieties involving the company in Kenya are entirely false, and we have the records to verify this. We are a financial technology company that maintains the highest regulatory standards in our operations. Our anti-money laundering practices and operations are regularly audited by one of the Big four firms. We remain proactive in our engagements with regulatory bodies to continue to stay compliant,” Flutterwave said in a statement at the time.
However,yesterday’s statement from Dr Njoroge has all but sealed Flutterwave’s fate in Kenya.
Flutterwave also had a scandalous expose written by David Hundeyin on April 12th on a multitude of its corporate governance and human resource issues labelling it the “African Unicorn Built on Quicksand”. At least In relation to Kenya, the company is almost submerged