E-Business
Kenyan Court Freezes Accounts of Flutterwave, Others for Alleged Money Laundering
A Kenyan high court has reportedly frozen the accounts of Futterwave, a Nigerian fintech, among over alleged money laundering.
A total of 56 bank accounts holding a whopping Sh7 billion suspected to have been laundered by foreign nationals were frozen by the court.
The orders were issued after the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) told the court that the accounts for seven targeted companies were used as conduits for money laundering in the guise of providing merchant services, The Star, a Kenyan based newspaper reported.
According to the report, the accounts that have been frozen are in USD, British Pound Sterling, EURO and Kenya shillings.
The companies listed are Flutterwave payment technology limited, Boxtrip travel and tours limited, Bagtrip travel limited, Elivalat fintech limited, Adguru technology limited, Hupesi solutions, Cruz ride auto limited and one Simon Ngige.
According to the court documents, Flutterwave was registered on February 23, 2017.
Its directors are listed as Olugbenga Agboola, David Mouko (Kenyan) and Flutterwave Inc.
The company operated 29 bank accounts with Guaranty Trust Bank, 17 with Equity Bank and 6 with Ecobank.
The Agency says the company’s account received billions of shillings and the same was deposited in different bank accounts in an attempt to conceal the nature, source or movement of the funds.
“Investigations established that the bank accounts operations had suspicious activities where funds could be received from specific foreign entities which raised suspicion. The funds were then transferred to related accounts as opposed to settlement to merchants,” the agency said.
In an affidavit, Isaac Nakitare, an investigator with the agency says they obtained orders on April 4 this year to search and inspect the accounts.
Nakitare says by the time he obtained the orders, the accounts at Guaranty Trust bank belonging to Flutterwave had a balance of Sh5.3 billion, Sh1.4 billion at Equity bank and other millions at Ecobank.
Some of the funds he said were transferred into fixed deposit accounts.
The agency, according to the report, ffurther established that Flutterwave was concealing the nature of its business by allegedly providing a payment service platform without authorization from the central bank of Kenya as required by section 12 of the national payment system act.
The accounts he said were used as conduits for money laundering in the guise of providing merchant services.
“If indeed the Flutterwave was providing merchant services, there was no evidence of retail transactions from customers paying for goods and services. Further, there is no evidence of settlements to the alleged merchants,” he said.
The company’s Equity account number revealed that at some point in May 2021, it received 185 online card payments all sharing the same bank identification number.
The transactions were done using cards issued by the same bank at the same point on the same day raising suspicion of card fraud.
For instance, ARA says the Flutterwave equity USD Bank account was opened in November 2020.
The funds received were mainly from Flutterwave Inc.
Between 2020 and 2022, the account received approximately Sh12 billion and the funds were either transferred to Remix ltd while the rest were invested in a fixed deposit account.
Justice Maina further issued orders stopping Boxtrip travels and tours limited from transferring or withdrawing 3.9 million dollars (Sh460 million) held in his Eco bank account
The Director of Boxtrip travels and tours the director is listed as Enyioma Olufemi a Nigerian national.
“It received the money from Flutterwave ltd in two days. That is 27 to 28 April this year.”
“No explanation nor supporting documents were provided to justify the transactions therefore reasonable grounds to believe that the accounts were used as conduits for money laundering,” said ARA.
For Bagtrip travels, the court froze its account holding Sh425 million shillings.
The director of the company is listed as Taiwo Soyemi, a Nigerian National.
It received the monies from Flutterwave ltd and rainbow solution technology on 28 April and 6 May 2022.
A further Sh1.2 million belonging to Elivalat Fintech Limited was frozen.
Some of the monies were transferred to Tiware Adrian Simon who is one of the directors at Elivalat ltd and to Muoko David who is one of the directors of Flutterwave ltd.
For Aduru technology limited, the court froze Sh100 million held in its Equity account.
The directors of the company are listed as Adaeze Okonkwo, and Caroline Muchina, wife to David Muoko who is a director of Flutterwave.
For Hupesi solutions, the court preserved the Sh1.6 million held in its Equity account.
Th proprietor of the company is listed as Festus Mutuku.
The documents indicate that the company’s equity account received a total of Sh143m of which 54 million was transferred to Flutterwave payments, 45 million transferred to GC Natural PL and internal transfers of Sh26 million.
The transactions were done in tranches of below Sh1 million to avoid reporting threshold.
But by the time the agency obtained orders to freeze, only 1.6 million was left in the account.
The court preserved another Sh2.4 million held in the account of Crus ride, a motor vehicle dealer.
The company is said to have received the monies from Flutterwave on June 6. The funds were later transferred to Simon Ngige.
“The account had been dormant and had not received any funds from September 2021 to May 2022. However, in June 2022, the account received 269,000 US dollars (31.7 million shillings),” said ARA.
The documents indicate that Ngige received 452000 US dollars (Sh53.3 million) in his KCB account from Flutterwave, Cavin solutions and Cruz ride auto.
On 24 June, Ngige transferred 200,000 US dollars (SHS 23.6 million) to his KCB account. The court stopped him from transferring Sh14 million left in his account
“An analysis of the statements of accounts established that the accounts received suspicious deposits that indicate smurfing activities hoping to evade detection,” said ARA.
The orders granted by the court will be in force for a period of 90 days.
The case will be mentioned on November 7, the report said.
At the close of 2025, Temidayo Ojo, the CEO of Jumia Nigeria, reflected on a year-end shopping season that points to the growing maturity of the country’s e-commerce market. “Black Friday is no longer a single, short-lived spike in activity,” he said.
“It has become a familiar, anticipated moment in the retail calendar, where consumers shop deliberately and with confidence.”
Preliminary KPIs for the two months ended November 30, 2025, show strong year-on-year growth in both orders and Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), with GMV growth outpacing order growth. This indicates that customers are placing fuller, more considered baskets rather than shopping in fragmented transactions. Nigeria ranked among Jumia Group’s better-performing markets, with engagement remaining steady throughout the Black Friday period rather than spiking briefly and tapering off.
A key factor behind this performance is the growing familiarity of consumers with online shopping. Customers are increasingly leveraging platform features such as saved carts, brand stores, and price comparison tools to plan purchases in advance. This trend suggests that digital commerce is becoming embedded in everyday habits rather than being viewed as a one-off event.
Ojo also highlighted the role of Jumia’s JForce network in connecting digital commerce to local communities. “Our agents are critical to ensuring that customers across Nigeria, including secondary cities and smaller communities, have access to variety, consistent pricing, and reliable delivery,” he said. “During peak periods like Black Friday, JForce agents can respond faster, serve more customers efficiently, and build stronger local relationships. This isn’t just a distribution channel—it’s a pathway to sustainable income and inclusion.”
Reflecting on the overall performance, the CEO concluded: “What we’re seeing this year-end is steady engagement across categories, stronger consumer confidence, and partners like our JForce agents benefiting from increased activity.
“It confirms that Nigeria’s e-commerce ecosystem is maturing, growing in a more structured and resilient way. As the December Holiday Sale continues, we expect these patterns of familiarity, trust, and participation to sustain momentum and drive both commerce and community impact across the country.”
Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) has been ranked first overall in the 2025 Federal Government Website Performance Scorecard.
This is a landmark achievement for Nigeria’s digital economy.
The ranking, conducted by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), is the definitive benchmark for digital excellence and transparency across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
Professor Ibrahim Adepoju Adeyanju, managing director and CEO of Galaxy Backbone, received the award during a ceremony in Abuja.
He described the feat as a validation of the agency’s“Nigeria First”data sovereignty strategy and its relentless pursuit of service excellence.
This recognition comes as the Federal Government intensifies its push to achieve a fully paperless civil service by December 31, 2025.
GBB has been the primary architect of this transition through its 1Gov Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform, which now hosts the operations of almost all federal MDAs.
The award adds to a growing list of accolades for Galaxy Backbone in 2025, following its recent win of the “International Standard Excellence Award for Best IT Service Provider.”
As the central hub for government shared services, GBB’s performance serves as a blueprint for other agencies currently undergoing digital transformation.
With its expanded fiber-optic backbone now covering over 13 states and its secure cloud solutions, Galaxy Backbone remains the cornerstone of Nigeria’s vision to become a leading digital nation by the end of the decade.
Okitipi Samuel, a Nigerian man, has been taken into custody by the Nigeria Police Force for his alleged role in a global cyberattack on Microsoft 365 users.
Benjamin Hundeyin, Force public relations officer, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the outcome of investigations carried out by the National Cybercrime Centre of the Nigeria Police Force.
Hundeyin said the centre, under the leadership of Ifeanyi Uche, its director and Commissioner of Police, commenced investigations in collaboration with Microsoft, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency.
According to him, investigations revealed that a phishing toolkit known as “Raccoon 0365” was used to create fake Microsoft login portals to harvest user credentials and unlawfully access email accounts belonging to corporate organisations, financial institutions, and educational institutions in several countries.
“This investigation commenced following credible intelligence received from Microsoft USA through the FBI, indicating that a malicious phishing toolkit known as Raccoon0365 was being used to create fake Microsoft login portals, harvest user credentials, and unlawfully access the email accounts of corporate organisations, financial institutions, and educational establishments,” Hundeyin said.
He added that between January and September 2025, several reports of unauthorised access to Microsoft 365 accounts were traced to phishing emails designed to mimic legitimate Microsoft login pages, enabling business email compromise, internal phishing, data breaches, and other cyber-enabled fraud.
Hundeyin said digital forensic analysis and cryptocurrency tracing identified wallets connected to the illegal operation.
He noted that operatives were deployed to Lagos and Edo states, leading to the arrest of three suspects identified as Joshua, James, and Okitipi Samuel between September 20 and October 4, 2025.
“Following extensive digital forensic and technical intelligence analysis, the centre conducted cryptocurrency tracing that identified suspicious wallets connected to cash-out schemes.
“Acting on actionable intelligence, operational teams were deployed to Lagos and Edo states, resulting in the arrest of Joshua, James, and Okitipi Samuel. Searches at their residences led to the recovery of mobile devices, laptops, and other digital exhibits linked to the fraudulent scheme,” he said.
Hundeyin identified Okitipi Samuel, also known as “0365” and Moses Felix as the principal suspect and developer of the phishing infrastructure.
He added that investigations confirmed Samuel unlawfully used the email details of one of the arrested individuals without consent to register some of the accounts used in the operation.
The police spokesperson said further investigations revealed that the identities of Joshua and James were used without their consent.
“There was no evidence linking them to the creation or operation of the phishing scheme. They were victims of identity theft,” Hundeyin said.
He said a prima facie case had been established against Samuel for identity theft, unlawful access to computer systems, creation and distribution of malicious software, unauthorised interference with network data, and aiding and abetting fraud.
Hundeyin added that the suspect would be charged under relevant provisions of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2024.
He said the suspect would be prosecuted in Nigeria, noting that the country has the capacity to enforce its cybercrime laws, although extradition could be considered if formally requested through due process.
Hundeyin assured Nigerians that the police, under the leadership of Kayode Egbetokun, inspector-general of Police, would continue to protect the country’s digital ecosystem and urged citizens to practise good cyber hygiene by being cautious when clicking links and sharing personal information online.
Speaking separately, Ifeanyi Uche, director of the National Cybercrime Centre, urged Nigerians to exercise caution online.
Uche advised members of the public to avoid clicking on links from unknown or unexpected sources, noting that such links often contain malware or phishing tools designed to compromise devices and personal data.
He warned that indiscriminate clicking of links or responding to unsolicited emails could lead to unauthorised access to personal and corporate accounts, urging citizens to “wash their cyber hands” by verifying sources before taking action online.
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