Nigerian fintech start-up Flutterwave says it is eyeing a $50 million (Ksh.7.3 billion) investment in Kenya once it gets local approval from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

The start-up facilitates cross-border payments in Africa and is one of the continent’s top-valued ventures but its bid to enter the Kenyan market has been marred with legal battles.

CBK last year flagged it for operating in the country since 2018 without approval.

CEO Olugbenga Agboola was on Wednesday quoted as telling journalists that the start-up has already received first-name approval from the lender and that they are gearing up for a major investment after getting a license.

“We have received first name approval by the Central Bank of Kenya, which is the initial step towards getting a license and we expect this to come through soon,” the Standard newspaper quoted him as saying.

“We are very optimistic about Kenya and once we get the license, our team in the country is ready to deploy the very next day,” he said, adding that they already have over two dozen staff locally.

The Business Daily newspaper reported that the company was seeking to scale up its physical infrastructure.

“We are looking at investing not less than $50 million. We are employing people. We are getting a new office and scaling up our infrastructure. There is a lot to do in Kenya,” Agboola told the publication.

“We are happy we are going through the process of approval. We didn’t chicken out. We stayed the course even when everything stopped. The current administration is very supportive.”

The start-up has also been under probe by the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) over money laundering allegations which saw ARA freeze billions of shillings stored in several local banks by the company.

Agboola says ARA has since withdrawn the cases against them.

Flutterwave was founded in 2016 by Agboola, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Adeleke Adekoya. The start-up achieved ‘unicorn’ status in 2021.

A ‘unicorn’ is a tech company with a valuation of $1 billion (Ksh.146 billion) without being listed on the stock market.

The venture raised $250 million in a Series D round that tripled its valuation to over $3 billion in just twelve months. In March 2021, Flutterwave had raised $170 million in a Series C round at a valuation of $1 billion.

Headquartered in San Francisco and based in Lagos, the start-up also operates in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania.