GB Agboola: A Rippling Effect on Payments

I have written many times about this young man on these pages, and that is because he is doing some great things. I know football will not allow a lot of you reading this column to focus on other things, so I will reintroduce GB to you.

GB is the founder and main driver of the $3.3billion valued Flutterwave. The young man has built from scratch a world-beating institution out of Kingsway Road in Ikoyi that major global players are struggling to have a piece of the cake.

We have just seen reports that a giant tech player, Ripples, has taken a strategic stake in Flutterwave, thereby opening it up to alternative coin-driven payments.

GB is my friend and brother, and when you meet him, you will not believe that this is the bobo who is quietly doing all of these. The other day, I had a meeting with his team – Flutterwave is a major sponsor of Obey and Zik, two Nigerian plays coming up in London this August – and in that meeting, we had his staff dial in from London, Accra, Nigeria and Kenya. As they were talking to me, I was just marvelling at the international component of the team. Their discipline and focus-based discussion leaning to a symbiotic and robust presentation. I swear I was weak o.

GB has just delivered to the world a truly Nigerian export, and he is doing it with such penetrative elegance and mien of a visionary who works without noise. Kai. Well done, bro.