Indeed Flutterwave is looking at China’s population of 1.4 billion here. It has just announced it is going into a landmark partnership with Chinese payment solution Alipay, which overtook PayPal as the world’s largest mobile payment platform in 2013, and is today the world’s number one mobile payment service organization and the second-largest mobile payment service organization in the world.

The Flutterwave/AliPay connection is probably the biggest thing to ever happen to African tech if we understand the full implication. China is in play guys. Over One BILLION users are in play. I have always said, don’t build for Africa…..alone! Victor Asemota✔@asemota, a social commentator.

Here Is The Deal

Payments is partnerships and we’re happy to announce that we have partnered with @Alipay to create even more avenues for our merchants to seamlessly receive payments from customers all over the world, Flutterwave noted on its Twitter handle

What this means is “ that all our merchants can accept or install Alipay as a payment type to accept payments from its billion users,” Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola said in an interview. 

“There’s a lot of trade between Africa and China and this integration makes it easier for African merchants to accept Chinese customer payments,” he noted. 

The partnership is crucial because Flutterwave will earn revenue from the partnership by charging its standard 3.8% on international transactions. Flutterwave currently has more than 60,000 merchants on its platform, according to Agboola.

There’s also a catch for Flutterwave, as being integrated with Alipay now gives all of its merchants access to more than 1 billion users on the Alibaba product. 

“Alipay is available in addition to card, Barter, Mobile Money and other payment channels on the Rave checkout modal,” Flutterwave said in a statement.

“We’ve set out to provide the complete payment solution for Africans to thrive in the global economy. The complete payment solution would first require interconnectivity within Africa, then connectivity from Africa to the world,” says Flutterwave.

Flutterwave is a Lagos and San Francisco-based fintech startup. The Nigerian B2B payments platform allows African companies to send out payments to other firms around the world. 

Access To Chinese And African Markets 

This partnership with Alipay which has a large network in China will help Alibaba capture payments activities between Africa and China, whose volume has been put at USD 200 Bn.

The Flutterwave-Alipay alliance developed out of Agboola’s acceptance in Alibaba’s Africa eFounders Fellowship.

“Because of that I was in China to do meetings with Jack Ma and the only ask I had from that trip is ‘I want to be the Africa payment infrastructure that plugs directly into Alipay,’ ” Agboola said.

Flutterwave has been able to connect African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda with one another. This makes cross-border payments easy for several companies.

“So it was about time we connected Africa to the world. We started with the U.S already, but you can’t connect Africa to the world without China”. @Honcho_Honips

With this partnership, there is a high probability that you’ll be able to pay your Chinese import agents directly with your naira.

The Flutterwave-Alipay collaboration is but one of the many ways Chinese companies are establishing their presence in Africa. Even Alibaba founder Jack Ma himself has made many trips to the continent for one reason or the other; it’s evident that China sees economic potential in Africa.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has made several trips to the continent and this March announced the $1 million Africa Netpreneur Prize for African startups and founders. Chinese company Transsion — a top-seller of smartphones in Africa under its Tecno brand — operates an assembly facility in Ethiopia and announced its IPO this year.

Earlier this year, Flutterwave entered a collaboration with Visa, and the team-up launched GeBarter, a consumer payment product for Africa.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

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