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.”

A payment gateway enables businesses, governments, NGOs, charities, and others to receive payments from their websites or other digital touchpoints through cards, transfers, USSD, wallets, etc, for themselves or on behalf of their customers.

While there are a number of payment gateway providers in Nigeria, the 10 prominent players are listed below:

1. Remita
2. Paystack
3. Flutterwave
4. Interswitch
5. Seerbit
6. Fincra
7. Kora
8. Moniepoint
9. eTranzact
10. HabariPay

1. Remita

Launched in 2005, the Remita payment gateway is offered by Remita Payment Services Limited, a subsidiary of SystemSpecs. It is robust and resilient and is in use by many SMEs, corporates, religious institutions, NGOs, governments, fintechs, etc.

Selected by the Central Bank of Nigeria, it serves as the payment gateway for the National Treasury Single Account (TSA) initiative, processing millions of local and foreign transactions across multiple channels. Remita processes more than N60 trillion in transaction value annually.

2. Paystack

Founded in 2015, Paystack is a leading payment gateway provider. Its payment gateway enables customers to easily activate collections on their digital touchpoints.

By July 2024, Paystack announced it had processed a staggering N1 trillion in a single month – a milestone that spoke volumes of its rapid adoption among startups and enterprises.

Founded by Nigerian entrepreneurs, Paystack was acquired by global payment company Stripe in October 2020.

3. Flutterwave

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave is a pan-African payments company providing payment gateway services to merchants, fintechs, and other entities. Merchants use Flutterwave payment gateway to receive payments in different currencies through cards, mobile money, USSD, and bank transfers. Flutterwave processed US$31 billion in transaction value in 2024.

4. Interswitch

Founded in 2002, with an initial focus on card switching and processing, Interswitch expanded into providing payment gateway services that enable customers to receive money digitally through different payment channels. Interswitch processed 1.2 billion transactions in March 2023.

5. Seerbit

Founded in 2019, Seerbit is a Nigerian fintech startup with a mandate to bridge Africa’s offline–online payment divide. The Seerbit payment gateway enables its customers to receive payments digitally through multiple payment channels. As of 2025, Seerbit is active in 12 African countries.

6. Fincra

Founded in 2021 with a grand vision to create a borderless Africa seamlessly connected to global finance. It provides multiple APIs for pay-ins (payment gateway, payment links, virtual accounts) and pay-outs (bulk disbursements, IMTO‑licensed transfers). Between 2023 and 2024, Fincra processed over US$10 billion in transaction value.

7. Kora

Founded in 2017, Kora is among the 10 leading payment gateway providers in Nigeria. It initially started as a blockchain remittance platform before pivoting to B2B Payment infrastructure services.

In addition to its payment gateway service, it now offers pay-ins, payouts, virtual accounts, and card issuing across Africa – helping local and global businesses scale in multiple currencies.

8. Moniepoint

Founded in 2015 as Teamapt, Moniepoint has evolved into a leading payment company. Its Monnify payment gateway allows merchants to receive payments through multiple channels, including cards, bank transfers, USSD, etc. As of 2025, Moniepoint processes roughly US$17 billion monthly.

9. eTranzact

Founded in 2003, eTranzact is a leading payments company that provides a wide-array of payment solutions. Its payment gateway Webconnect, enables businesses to accept payments via cards, USSD, bank transfers, etc.

Merchants on Webconnect benefit from seamless integration, a transaction dashboard, and prompt settlements. eTranzact processes trillions of Naira in payment value annually.

10. HabariPay

Founded in 2021, HabariPay is the fintech subsidiary of GTCO. Its Squad payment gateway allows merchants to collect payments from a variety of payment channels, including cards, bank transfers, USSD, etc. HabariPay processed N27.4 trillion in 2024 alone.

Several tools exist today to help businesses achieve their financial management goals and establish themselves in a very competitive market.

One such tool is the virtual account, offering several benefits for multinational corporations, startups and SMEs, helping these businesses achieve their financial management goals while scaling sustainably.

In our article, “What is a virtual account and why you need it for your business,” we explained the basic concept of virtual accounts, including the types of virtual accounts, and benefits.

Taking it forward with this SeerBit article, we explain the various roles that virtual accounts can play in ensuring businesses achieve efficient financial management.

• Cash Flow Management

Virtual accounts offer a level of precision and agility that the traditional bank account does not offer businesses in today’s world.

Virtual accounts give businesses more control over their funds, as they can easily segregate or compartmentalise funds for various expenses, regulate their cash flow in real-time and ensure safety for the business’ cash reserve.

The ability to segregate funds for different short-term needs, such as supplier payments, tax payments, staff payments, and other long-term investments allows the company to make wiser financial decisions and ensures there will always be capital when it is needed.

• Streamlined Reconciliation

Virtual accounts help to streamline reconciliation for your business, making the process seamless and fast by matching transactions with corresponding records for each unique virtual account.

Every virtual account has a unique identifier, making it easy to match both outgoing and incoming transactions on the account with the business’ accounting records.

This process is automated, consequently saving valuable time and reducing the possibility of human errors. Hence, you get accurate financial reporting in real time to make informed business decisions, thereby resolving disputes quickly and improving customer satisfaction.

• Risk Mitigation

Virtual accounts play a crucial role in risk mitigation for businesses by providing an extra layer of security and control over financial transactions.

The ability to segregate funds for specific purposes minimises the risk of mixing funds and potential misuse.

Additionally, virtual accounts offer customisable access controls and permissions, allowing businesses to restrict access to authorised personnel only, thus reducing the risk of fraud and unauthorised transactions.

This heightened level of security not only safeguards financial assets but also enhances trust and confidence among stakeholders, ultimately contributing to more efficient financial management practices.

• Cost Optimisation

Virtual accounts contribute significantly to cost savings for businesses by streamlining banking operations and reducing associated fees.

Through the consolidation of funds into virtual accounts, businesses can negotiate better terms with banks and optimise their banking relationships, potentially leading to reduced transaction costs and account maintenance fees.

Furthermore, virtual accounts eliminate the need for maintaining multiple physical accounts, thereby reducing administrative overhead and freeing up resources for other strategic initiatives.

By leveraging virtual accounts, businesses can achieve greater efficiency in their financial management processes while simultaneously lowering operational expenses, ultimately boosting their bottom line.

• Adaptable and Scalable

Adaptability and scalability are other features of virtual accounts that make them effective for managing your business finances.

They are customisable and flexible, and this allows them to adapt to whatever preferences or needs that your business has.

It also means that you can configure your virtual accounts to meet specific objectives and requirements of your business.

So whether you are just starting your business or already growing, virtual accounts can meet every business need at different points, even when you start to scale.

This adaptability is good for your business, especially if you’re experiencing fluctuating sales volume.

Conclusion

Virtual accounts are an effective and versatile tool for your business to optimise the financial management process and enhance control and efficiency in the cash management system.

Switch to virtual accounts today!