The new hub, located at 21 Ahmed Onibudo Street, brings more than 25 staff onshore. It will oversee customer support, drive product development targeting West African markets, and enhance collaboration with banks, payment service providers, and regulators.

Verto said the decision to open in Lagos follows growing demand from businesses seeking an on-the-ground partner rather than a fully remote platform.

Over the years, Verto “has supported over 5,000 Nigerian and African businesses” and “processes more than $25 billion USD in annual global transactions today across 200+ countries and 49 currencies.”

How Verto Wants to Transform Global Payments for Fintechs, Online Marketplaces

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ola Oyetayo, noted the scale of the business, saying, “We do about $3 billion a month in transaction volume, you know. So it’s a lot of volume, 49 currencies.”

Country Director for Verto Nigeria, Austin Okpagu, described the launch as a long-term commitment to the Nigerian market.

“As Africa’s largest and most innovative fintech hub, Nigeria offers a dynamic environment for digital trade, entrepreneurship, and financial innovation, making it the natural anchor for Verto’s West African operations. 

“This hub allows us to respond faster to client needs, craft solutions tailored to local markets, and work even more closely with regulators and financial partners across the region.”

Oyetayo traced Verto’s beginnings to his years in the United Kingdom, where he began informally matching Nigerians abroad who wanted to invest at home with those in Nigeria who needed to pay for goods and services overseas.

“That’s really how Verto started, on WhatsApp, people would come to me saying, ‘I need $10,000,’ and I’d find someone who needed naira. I matched both of them together,” he said.

That origin story revealed why physical presence is now important. For several years, Verto deliberately maintained a low profile in Nigeria, preferring to prove its model first while navigating changing financial regulations. 

However, customers increasingly wanted local access, a physical office where they could resolve issues, speed up onboarding, and interact with a responsible team, especially amid Nigeria’s volatile FX cycles.

Local partners also backed the decision, as the CEO from Paga described the working relationship as creative and solution-driven:

“We’ve been able to call on you guys and say, here’s what we’re thinking about. Can we think about it together? And they’ve been very creative about how to resolve.”

A technology customer added that Verto’s pricing structure and reliability had simplified operations:

“Within a month, at least, making transactions and payments to suppliers all around the world… I like the fact that I don’t have to haggle. The price is the price. Could it be better? Can always be better, right? But it makes it so much easier for my team to validate their pricing, knowing that there’s one place they get the pricing and they plug it in, and it makes our workflow a lot more.”

At the launch of the new Verto Lagos office, the company outlined three operational priorities for its Lagos team: stronger customer relationships, tailored product development (including the rollout of Verto Atlas), and enhanced naira liquidity through deeper partnerships with local banks and payment processors.

The CEO stressed that the office represents a sustained investment, not a publicity move. He also emphasised the importance of trust and compliance, noting that the company values reliability over short-term pricing gains.

The event, featuring live product demos, customer testimonials, and open discussions about collaboration, brought together long-time customers, banking partners, regulators, and fintech stakeholders.

Verto said the Lagos team will focus on improving onboarding times, expanding collection and payout solutions, and optimising account services in the coming months.

The new office is a focus from a purely digital, global fintech model to a hybrid approach, platform scale supported by local expertise. In Nigeria, where trust and physical presence are essential to business relationships, that transition could prove decisive.

The new Verto Lagos office is located at 21 Ahmed Onibudo Street, Victoria Island. The company operates globally with offices in London, Cape Town, Nairobi, Pune, Dubai, New York, and Malta, and supports over 49 currencies across multiple African and international markets.

The collaboration allows Payful’s merchants to collect payments locally and settle globally, powered by Flutterwave’s multi-currency and compliant infrastructure.

According to Flutterwave’s Founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, “When the time came for Payful, a leading global trade company to expand its reach into Africa, there was no better partner to power that growth than Flutterwave.”

“Through our Virtual Account solution and multi-currency platform, we enabled Payful to collect payments locally, settle globally, and scale seamlessly, all within one secure and compliant infrastructure.”

The deal makes Flutterwave the backbone for Payful’s African expansion, providing localised payment collection through virtual accounts and enabling faster, cheaper settlements for merchants trading across borders. 

The integration also removes the need for Payful to encounter multiple banking systems and regulatory requirements in each country.

Africa’s payment sector is fragmented, with issues such as high transaction costs, currency fluctuations, and regulatory complexity. 

Payful faced these challenges while seeking efficient ways to process large trade payments in local currencies like the naira and cedi, and settle in international currencies such as the dollar and euro. 

Flutterwave’s established infrastructure provides a simplified solution to these limitations, ensuring compliance, liquidity management, and operational efficiency.

Through a simple API integration, Flutterwave issues virtual accounts that allow Payful’s merchants to receive local payments via bank transfers, a more reliable method than card payments for large transactions. Funds are then settled globally through regulated channels, maintaining transparency and security.

Flutterwave said the collaboration aligns with its mission to support global enterprises looking to enter or scale within Africa. The company noted that its platform removes the burden of integrating multiple financial systems, handling foreign exchange risks, and meeting diverse regulatory demands.

Payful, which operates across multiple sectors globally, sees the African market as a key growth frontier. The company’s focus, it said, is to make payments for its African merchants as “seamless and reliable as they are everywhere else in the world.”