Flutterwave is a global payments technology company founded in Nigeria to simplify how businesses across Africa send, receive, and manage money internationally. Operating in more than 35 countries, it is considered one of Africa's most valuable fintechs and the continent's largest payments infrastructure platform, both by valuation and transaction volume.

African businesses use Flutterwave for a wide range of financial operations, including collecting funds from global customers, paying suppliers and employees, processing remittances, and managing liquidity across fiat and stablecoin balances.

As its network and transaction volumes continue to grow, Flutterwave also needs to manage its own treasury operations, including funding operating accounts, maintaining liquidity across multiple markets, and managing USD and stablecoin balances.

To support both customer operations and internal treasury management, Flutterwave needed financial infrastructure capable of combining USD accounts, global payment rails, stablecoin connectivity, and multiple fiat currencies within a single platform.

Challenge: Expanding global access while managing liquidity

One of the biggest challenges facing international transactions involving African countries is the limited availability of liquidity in hard currencies, such as the US dollar (USD). In many cases, international payments depend on converting local currency into USD before settlement can take place. However, USD liquidity is not always sufficient to meet demand, creating processing queues that can last for days. The result is delayed settlements, higher operational costs, and greater uncertainty for businesses that rely on cross-border payments.

For businesses operating in African markets such as Nigeria and South Africa, accessing US payment infrastructure directly can be both challenging and expensive. Opening a USD account typically requires establishing a legal entity in the United States and going through rigorous onboarding processes, creating a significant barrier for many companies.

Flutterwave wanted to provide customers with a simpler way to move funds in USD without requiring them to navigate multiple financial providers, different interfaces, or manual processes.

The company also needed to solve another challenge related to treasury management. Beyond customer transactions, Flutterwave needed to fund operating accounts and move large USD and stablecoin positions across liquidity reserves, custody platforms, and other treasury accounts.

These requirements called for infrastructure capable of supporting multiple payment flows, rails, and currencies simultaneously.

Solution: Dedicated USD accounts, payments, and treasury through a single API

Through the partnership with Caliza, Flutterwave can bring together the entire payment flow required to support customers' international operations through a single integration.

Caliza provides the underlying infrastructure for accounts, payments, liquidity, and compliance, while Flutterwave remains the orchestration layer and continues to own the customer relationship.

Dedicated USD accounts

Flutterwave customers now have access to dedicated USD accounts in their own name, connected to both domestic and international payment rails.

They can receive USD through ACH, Fedwire, RTP, SWIFT, and other local payment methods, while Flutterwave maintains full visibility and control over balances and transactions across the platform.

Received USD funds can remain in individual customer accounts, move between accounts and currencies (stablecoins or fiat), or be consolidated for settlement and treasury management.

Account activity, transfers, conversions, and payment statuses can be managed programmatically through APIs and a web platform, allowing Flutterwave to automate operations while maintaining full control over the customer experience.

Supporting transactions of all sizes while protecting margins

International transactions are powered by stablecoins, making payment flows faster, more cost-effective, and more transparent by giving customers end-to-end visibility into every transaction. Dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDC and USDT help address one of the region's most significant challenges by reducing dependence on USD liquidity within correspondent banking systems, resulting in faster and more cost-effective cross-border transactions.

Flutterwave processes a wide range of transaction volumes, from recurring lower-value payments for retail remittances, payroll, and supplier payments to large treasury movements exceeding US$1 million.

By supporting both individual payments and large-value fund movements through the same infrastructure, Caliza enables Flutterwave to scale operations without sacrificing margins, preserving the value ultimately received by beneficiaries while avoiding fragmented payment workflows.

Results: Scalable infrastructure supporting the growth of international operations

The partnership provides Flutterwave with a unified infrastructure layer for customer accounts, payments, and internal treasury management.

Key outcomes include:

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"We wanted to give African businesses access to global payment infrastructure without passing that complexity on to them. Caliza allows us to combine a broad range of financial services, currencies, and payment rails within a single infrastructure layer while maintaining control over the customer experience.

" Olugbenga "GB" Agboola, CEO at Flutterwave

Expanding Africa's participation in global commerce

The partnership between Flutterwave and Caliza demonstrates how modern financial infrastructure can remove the barriers created by traditional payment systems and expand access to international commerce for African businesses. By bringing together multiple financial capabilities within a single platform, the solution makes cross-border transactions faster, more predictable, and more cost-effective, increasing operational efficiency and enabling new business opportunities.

Ready to modernize your international payments infrastructure? Talk to the Caliza team.

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