Olugbenga Agboola, the founder and CEO of Flutterwave, has urged the government to grant his business a new operating license by December 2023 after clearing his name of all allegations pertaining to the laundering of Ksh6.2 billion.
Agboola further declared in Nairobi on February 9 that Flutterwave had put measures in place to grow inside the Kenyan market, assuring its partners and stakeholders throughout the continent that they had followed with all local rules and laws.
The CEO traveled to Nairobi to speak with local employees of the business and ask the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which had placed an embargo on the farm, to meet with him.
“We are pleased to have resolved this issue so that we can resume our work with our strategic partners in Kenya providing innovative payment solutions to businesses and individuals in one of Africa’s largest and most dynamic economies.
“Flutterwave has been cleared of any wrongdoing and has fully cooperated with all the review stages,” Agboola stated.
Due to Flutterwave’s lack of a license at the time and its instruction to local banks to stop doing business with it, its accounts were first blocked in July 2022 in compliance with local anti-money laundering laws.
A group of investors who were doing business with the company shortly after filed a lawsuit requesting to be included in the case on the grounds that an order freezing its accounts had a direct impact on them.
The investors asserted that they had been harmed by the court orders freezing the cash and the accompanying Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) confiscation proceedings.
The judge refused the investors’ request for a joinder in her decision on February 9 on the grounds that the ARA had subsequently sent a notification to the court asking to dismiss the case against Flutterwave and lift the asset freezing measures.
“I have carefully considered the joinder application by the proposed interested party and my finding is that it has no merit.
“This is because ARA has already indicated that it wishes to withdraw the suit against the respondents, and thus the properties or assets are no longer forfeitable,” Justice Maina noted in her ruling.
A further mention of the Flutterwave lawsuit was planned for February 14, 2023, the day ARA is anticipated to announce its withdrawal decision.