By Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, the initiator and leader of Flutterwave, holds the view that the complete harnessing of Africa’s economic potential is reliant on enhancing credit access. Despite being among the world’s rapidly burgeoning markets for consumers, several African nations possess impoverished consumer credit frameworks, thereby rendering it arduous for entrepreneurs, firms, and individuals to secure credit.
In contrast to the United States, where citizens commence building their credit profile at the commencement of maturity, numerous African localities lack credit histories, hence impeding their ability to demonstrate their credibility to creditors. Consequently, numerous middle-class Africans encounter unfavorable treatment.
Flutterwave endeavors to counteract this issue by augmenting the availability of credit data. By conferring business proprietors with the authority to access credit through their smartphones, Flutterwave enables them to acquire larger inventories at lower costs, render goods at reduced prices, and generate more substantial revenues.
Flutterwave seeks to establish an efficient credit system that draws from credit bureaus’ practices in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East to develop data-driven credit scoring systems. These systems enable lenders to evaluate various aspects of an applicant’s credit history, utilization, payment history, and other variables, thereby reducing their lending risk. By capturing spending and payment data and sharing it with lenders, Flutterwave aims to generate more value.
With the increase in Africans’ utilization of Flutterwave’s technology to send money, make payments, and establish businesses, credit use will become more widespread. This expansion will facilitate the transition from a cash-based economy to a credit-based one, which will require data access normalization to boost credit use, particularly among small businesses and individuals.
In summary, Flutterwave plays a critical role in the process of unlocking Africa’s economic potential by enhancing credit data availability and creating additional value through its platform. Building credit is crucial to this endeavor, and Flutterwave is committed to this task.
