The Central Bank of Nigeria Gives Fincra A Payment License

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted a payment license to the Nigerian FinTech Fincra.

In a blog post on Thursday (Jan. 19), the company said it had gotten its commercial Payment Service Solution Provider (PSSP) license. This came after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved it in principle.

Fincra CEO Wole Ayodele said, “we are thrilled to have received this license from the Central Bank. This license is a huge step forward for us. It opens up many new opportunities for growth and expansion for our customers and us.”

Fincra is based in Toronto but focuses on African markets and has offices in Lagos. It offers a variety of payment solutions for businesses, helping them send and receive both domestic and international transactions online and offline.

Fincra isn’t the only payment technology company to see an opportunity in Nigeria. And the country has become a hotbed of FinTech innovation in recent years.

Nigeria is home to some critical names in African payments, like Flutterwave, which got a Switching and Processing License from the CBN in September.

The Switching and Processing License is the most comprehensive license the CBN gives for payment systems. It lets Flutterwave offer its customers all of the switching, card processing, non-bank acquiring, agency banking, and payment gateway services.

The CBN makes a distinction between different types of services for licensing purposes. These are payment solutions, mobile money services, switching and processing, and other ways to pay.

Interswitch, Appzone, TeamApt (now Moniepoint), eTranzact, and Unified Payments are some of the other FinTech companies. That the CBN has given a Switching and Processing License.

FinTechs need to meet stricter requirements to get a Switching and Processing license. It lets them do things that banks can only do on their own.

For instance, it has a much higher minimum capital requirement of 2 billion nairas (about $4.4 million). While a PSSP license only needs 100 million nairas (about $220,000).