Focused on ‘customer obsession’, Fincra aims to meet payment needs within and beyond Africa

Afeez Odunoye
*Fincra is removing the challenges associated with traditional payment processing methods by providing an integrated platform that puts revenue at the heart of every business operation
Wole Ayodele, CEO Fincra

Wole Ayodele seemed content with the work he was doing on the business and product team at Quidax, a digital asset exchange business. He had helped found the business, earning him the co-founder tag. But, he soon saw a need in the payment space that needed a disruptive, bold approach. He initiated the process for a new business to create fitting solutions and called it Fincra.

”The story of Fincra dates back to my previous startup experience at Quidax where I was a co-founder. From that experience, I found that people were doing transactions across Africa but there was a gap from the payment infrastructure point of view. Someone had to fill that gap by delivering that payment infrastructure”, Ayodele narrated in an exclusive chat with Technext.

Fincra enables businesses to scale across multiple markets.
Fincra enables businesses to scale across multiple markets. TechCabal.

Barring initial setbacks, Ayodele and a small group – the Fincra tribe – rose to the challenge to create a solution.

With Fincra, merchants can accept payments securely, make global payouts in multiple currencies at a low cost with no hidden fees, and expand their business across borders.

Since its launch in September 2021, Fincra has consistently delivered solutions ranging from access to a mass payout network to easy to integrate payment APIs for developers to innovate and fintechs to scale to their full potential and provide the best cross-border payment offerings.

Also, the payment gateway offers quick payment collection for businesses from customers in the UK, EU, Nigeria, the US, and other African countries via virtual accounts in USD, GBP, EUR, and NGN, and easy settlement into their Fincra wallet with no hidden fees or the headaches of international banking. 

Fincra launched into the payment infrastructure space in September 2021. Techpoint.

A culture of consistency at Fincra

Barely seven months into the business of creating solutions that eliminate challenges with traditional payment processing, Fincra has grown to be a first-choice payment infrastructure.

”It’s been really great. It’s been seven months of growth, learning and wins. Beyond the growth, we have seen regular adoption across several business segments. For instance, we have seen more (top) fintechs using our solutions and even across other industries and different countries. The reception has been really good. The team (Fincra tribe) has been instrumental to all of that”, Ayodele, who serves as CEO, said of the growth and confidence in Fincra’s offerings.  

Merchants, businesses and fintechs have kept the trust with the company as Fincra works around a lack of secure payment infrastructure, country-specific regulations, transactions taking several days to settle, among other issues to make seamless cross-border payments.

Fincra is removing the challenges associated with traditional payment processing methods by providing an integrated platform that puts revenue at the heart of every business operation. We are making it easy for businesses to scale across multiple markets by offering a simple, secure, low-cost way to receive and send money.

Wole Ayodele

Today, businesses in Africa, UK and US can onboard with Fincra and make it easier for anyone to send them money in multiple supported currencies securely, at low cost. 

Building solutions from ‘customer-obsession’

Successful businesses get to record growth and meet targets when they place a premium on customer satisfaction. For Fincra, it’s just as important to keep making life easy for customers.

We operate on the ‘customer-obsession’ approach. Often, people say things like that. But at Fincra, we mean it. We are actually involved in making customers’ life easy.

Ayodele said, on building customer-focused solutions.

He added: ”The services we offer are superior; they are inspired by the dedicated one-on-one interactions we have with customers. The approach has been very helpful in creating innovative products for the market.”

Beating the competition

Fincra operates a multi-layered infrastructure that empowers merchants and keeps the business several steps ahead of other players in the market.

”We have a multi-layered infrastructure if I could put it that way. We allow our merchants do a lot of things with different products. From payments collection to local payments, international payments to agency banking, our products are like an all-in-one solution for our customers”, Ayodele spoke of the company’s competitive advantage.  

Africa at the heart of solutions

Ayodele says Fincra’s focus comes from a place of ”positive bias” and encouraging Africans to solve the continent’s problems.

”I mean I’m an African; that’s already a huge positive bias. Beyond just being African, everybody speaks about opportunities in Africa. They talk about how large and young the continent’s population is. 

”Because the rest of the world will always take care of itself first, Africa needs to be able to solve her problems. We cannot expect the rest of the world, or someone from Europe or America or anywhere else to come and solve these problems. For me, I think that the seamless transfer of values across Africa is important to unlocking a lot of economic potentials. So, that’s why we have the African focus.”

But, there’s a global picture in the mix. Fincra is bridging the gap between Africa and the rest of the world, making it easy for African businesses to seamlessly transact business across the world. 

Retaining talents

For businesses operating on the African continent, there’s a constant dash to attract and keep the best talents. Ayodele shares this sentiment.

”The biggest challenge we have on the continent is one challenge that most of the world is facing; talent. Getting the best talents and retaining the best talents has never been more difficult because of the political situation in Africa. There’s a lot of instability and people don’t really feel safe. There’s that much demand for talent leaving the country.”

To get around this problem, Ayodele believes businesses have to reckon with making people the most important element of their existence.

”Retaining these talents can be quite challenging. It’s the most defining thing for a business because people build businesses. People are the most important piece of anything you are trying to build. It’s important for companies to position themselves to attract the best talents. And I think that our team is doing well at that.”

It’s important for companies to position themselves to attract the best talents.

Wole Ayodele

More products, more value

For Fincra, the days ahead are wrapped in exciting offerings. The business is hoping to introduce new products and improve existing ones.

”There’s a lot of work. We are trying as much as possible to raise our offerings for merchants and other users as we work towards building business across Africa”, Ayodele said of Fincra’s next steps. 


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