The digital payment platform, Flutterwave has partnered Flywire, an international payment medium, that will enable students, patients, and businesses from Nigeria to pay their fees and bills abroad using their local cards and bank accounts.
Flutterwave is a payments technology company that provides seamless and secure payment solutions to banks and businesses across Africa. Flywire, on the other hand, is a provider of global payment and receivables solutions for education and healthcare sectors, connecting over 1,400 businesses and institutions with its customers on six continents.
Flywire processes billions in payments per year from 220 countries and territories, bank transfer, credit card and e-wallet solutions, in over 120 different local currencies.
According to a statement, Flutterwave aims at making payments by Nigerians and Africans much easier, considering the payment process have been complex and slow, with too much paperwork and costly information gaps, bearing in mind that billions of dollars are being invested in international education, healthcare and business goods and services by Africans every year.
“Our partnership with Flywire makes it possible for people in Nigeria and all across Africa to make these investments more confidently and hassle-free. We are very proud to partner Flywire to enable more Africans to become citizens of the world,†the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji said.
Nigeria is the number one source of international students and patients in universities and hospitals from Africa.
Also, a report by the Higher Education Statistical Authority for the 2016/2017 academic session had shown that 15,000 Nigerians were studying at universities in Britain and the United Kingdom, while another 10,000 were studying in United States universities.
According to a World Bank report, Nigerians spend $1bn annually on medical treatment abroad. The country is a thriving market for international payments and trade, exporting an estimated $35bn worth of goods and services each year, and importing over $30bn worth of goods and services each year.
Flutterwave already provides end-to-end payments technology and infrastructure which enables payment service providers, global merchants, licensed money transfer operators and Pan-African banks to process payments to and from Africa with one API integration.
With the Flutterwave and Flywire partnership, experts have predicted that one of the key wins that would be easily adopted would be the ability to pay international school fees from Nigeria in Naira, as all the bottlenecks bedeviling that process will be gone.
On his part, Flywire’s Chief Executive Officer, Mike Massaro said, “Together with Flutterwave, we are removing a lot of that complexity and providing a more seamless payment experience for international students, patients, and businesses.
“Nigerians will now have the convenience of being able to make digital, cross-border payments in their local currency, through electronic bank transfers, credit/debit cards, and mobile payments,†Massaro concluded.
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