Flutterwave, Africa’s largest payments start-up, is putting a senior executive on the ground in China.
The company said on Monday that it had appointed Guo Songmei as regional vice president of sales and partnerships for Greater China and Asia. She will split her time between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Her job is to sign up Asian companies that sell to African customers and to build payment partnerships between the two regions. The hire comes as Flutterwave marks its 10th anniversary and looks for growth beyond its home markets.
Why Asia Matters to Flutterwave
Trade between Asia and Africa has grown quickly. Chinese manufacturers, e-commerce platforms and suppliers now sell heavily into African markets.
Getting paid is the hard part. Companies face volatile local currencies, slow settlement and a patchwork of regulations across dozens of countries.
Flutterwave says it is already seeing demand. Companies in East Asia serving African customers processed nearly $1 billion through its platform in the first half of 2025, according to the company.
“The Asia–Africa trade corridor is one of the fastest-growing commercial routes in the world,” said Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave’s founder and chief executive.
Who is Guo Songmei
Ms. Guo has spent more than 20 years in corporate and commercial banking across Africa and Asia.
In Nigeria, she founded and scaled the China business units at Stanbic IBTC and Access Bank. Those desks handled close to $1 billion in cross-border transactions, the company said. She also arranged supply chain and infrastructure financing deals.
In Ghana, she managed relationships with Chinese corporations across West Africa for Standard Chartered Bank.
In Asia, she held senior corporate banking roles at HSBC in China and at OCBC Bank in Malaysia and Singapore.
Most recently, she was executive director for Greater China sales at a Malaysian software and payment orchestration firm. There, she led market entry, signed enterprise merchants and built partnerships with licensed payment acquirers.
Mr. Agboola said her experience building China–Africa banking desks and her relationships in both regions made her the right fit.
Ms Guo’s Role
Ms. Guo will focus on Flutterwave’s enterprise products. These include multicurrency accounts, local payout networks and settlement services across more than 30 African markets.
The pitch to Asian companies is simple: Flutterwave handles the currency risk and delays so they can get paid reliably.
“Asian enterprises expanding into African markets require dependable, licensed infrastructure that solves local currency friction,” Ms. Guo said in a statement.
A Broader Leadership Push
The appointment follows Flutterwave’s recent hiring of Morounke Olufemi as global chief financial officer.
The company has been adding senior executives and stressing regulatory compliance as it expands. It describes itself as a “financial operating system” for cross-border trade, handling both traditional and digital settlement.
The China announcement was made in Beijing, where Mr. Agboola and Mobolaji Bammeke, Flutterwave’s chief compliance officer, attended a forum held by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
