African payments giant Flutterwave has acquired Mono, one of the continent's prominent open banking infrastructure providers, in a move that signals growing consolidation in Africa's maturing fintech sector.
The acquisition brings Mono's open banking connectivity and financial data infrastructure across Nigeria under Flutterwave's control, while maintaining Mono's position as a neutral provider serving the broader ecosystem, including Flutterwave's competitors.
The deal addresses a key challenge in African fintech, where the high costs of building and maintaining essential infrastructure have led to fragmentation. Open banking infrastructure requires substantial capital investment, engineering resources and regulatory compliance while operating on thin margins.
'Our decision to bring in this critical piece of infrastructure ensures the long-term stability and scale needed for the next era of African fintech,' Flutterwave stated in announcing the acquisition.
Strategic Infrastructure Play
The acquisition strengthens Flutterwave's capabilities across three key areas: payments connectivity to Nigerian bank accounts, consent-based access to financial data for improved risk assessment, and identity verification across multiple official data sources.
Flutterwave plans to integrate these capabilities into its core business products while maintaining Mono's services for third-party clients, similar to how Amazon Web Services hosts Netflix despite competing in streaming services.
Market Consolidation
The deal follows similar consolidation trends in other markets, with South Africa's Stitch acquiring Efficacy Payments to become a Designated Clearing System Participant, and Visa's acquisition of Tink in Europe.
Industry observers note this consolidation pattern typically emerges as markets mature, with infrastructure players combining to achieve the scale needed for better reliability and negotiating power with banking partners.
Flutterwave indicates it will maintain Mono's neutrality as an infrastructure provider, emphasizing that the platform's value derives from network trust and scale across the entire ecosystem.
