Editor’s note: African-Startups is a sister publication of EU-Startups, bringing trusted coverage of startups, venture capital, and innovation across Africa.
Flutterwave hosted a closed-door roundtable in New York with Invest Africa on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 81). The session was held on 28 September 2026 under the theme “Africa Forward: Investing in the Next Decade of Growth”.
“In the last ten years, we’ve seen very strongly how African technology can work and scale. As we look toward the next ten years, the real opportunity lies in building the deep infrastructure that enables African businesses to operate, grow, and compete seamlessly across borders. This requires simplifying cross-border money movement, expanding liquidity and capital access, and creating trusted digital systems that enterprises can rely on as they expand,” said Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave.
The main message was that African companies need stronger financial infrastructure, more capital and closer ties between governments and the private sector if they are to grow globally.
Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was represented by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President. Minister of Finance Taiwo Oyedele also attended. The Nigerian delegation included Katsina State Governor Dikko Radda, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Ambassador Lateef Kayode Are, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States.
Business and finance leaders were also in the room, from organisations including 500 Global, Absa Bank, Africa50, Africa Finance Corporation, Amazon, Chapel Hill Denham, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Goldman Sachs, Itana and Resilience 17.
Participants said African companies face three main barriers when they try to expand across regions: fragmented regulation, limited growth capital and difficulty moving money across borders.
They added that solutions must reflect uneven infrastructure, differences in talent supply and the range of operating conditions across markets.
The group discussed stablecoin payment rails, banking services for institutions, shared fraud prevention networks, patient capital and public-private partnerships.
The session ended with a joint commitment from government and business leaders to expand cross-border infrastructure, raise expansion capital and build the financial systems African commerce needs to compete globally.
Flutterwave is a payments technology company that lets businesses accept local and cross-border payments in Africa and other emerging markets through one API. It says it has processed more than 1 billion transactions worth over $50 billion.
Its customers include Uber, Air Peace, Bamboo and PiggyVest. The company operates in 34 African countries and supports card payments, mobile wallets, bank transfers and Google Pay. Its Send App handles remittances from the diaspora to African countries.
