Nigerian fintech giant, Flutterwave, has slashed its workforce by 24, representing 3% of its total employees.
The company announced this on Monday describing the exercise as part of a strategic restructuring focused on its core enterprise payments and remittance businesses.
This brings closer to home the wave of tech layoffs by global tech giants that started last year and continued into the first quarter of 2024.
Announcing the downsizing, Flutterwave’s CEO, Olugbenga Agboola said the company made a data-backed decision to recommit resources to its core business; enterprise payments and has also committed to doing more with its growing remittance segment; Send App.
“As a result, we have rebuilt the teams to more efficiently utilize the opportunities in these markets. Consequently, we’ve made the difficult decision to support the transition of 24 Wavers accounting for 3% of our workforce,” he said.
Severance package
Acknowledging the impact of the layoffs on the affected employees, Agboola outlined a comprehensive severance package to support them. According to Agboola, this includes a minimum of three months’ gross salary, monetization of unused leave days, and access to professional development resources for up to a year.
“We will pay an average of 3 months gross salary, depending on the country where the employee is based. We will also be monetizing your unutilized accrued leave days.
“You will continue to have free access to our professional training platform for 12 months after your transition. We will be providing you with free outplacement service for 3 months.
“For Wavers with stock options, we will support you with an additional vesting period of 6 months. You will have 3 months of free healthcare.
“You will continue to have access to our mental health and career coaches for 3 months post-transitioning. We hope this softens the impact this sudden transition has on you personally and professionally,” Agboola said.
Compensation review for retained staff
For remaining employees, Flutterwave announced a company-wide compensation review, which include a market-aligned base salary increase for most employees and a new performance-based bonus structure tied to individual and team performance metrics.
Agboola said this was in response to recent employee feedback and a thorough analysis of market trends.
“A thorough market analysis was conducted to ensure that we are competitive within our industry and so a majority of you will see an upward adjustment to your base compensation.
“The new discretionary bonus structure will tie directly to individual and team performance and will be based on specific, measurable KPIs that align with our strategic goals,” Agboola said.
The company claims this new structure positions them at the 95th percentile for junior employees and the 85th percentile for senior employees in the market.
What you should know
While Flutterwave is reducing its workforce in Nigeria, the company disclosed, in May, that it had approval in principle for a payment aggregator licence from the Bank of Mozambique.
- This approval enables Flutterwave to expand its operations into southern African markets and offer its payment services in Mozambique.
- Additionally, last week, Flutterwave announced a partnership with Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to construct and equip a state-of-the-art Cybercrime Research Center.
- Amid the layoffs, Flutterwave said it sees a growth opportunity and it is leveraging that to speed up its growth, development, and innovation.
- The company said it is actively hiring for key positions in risk, compliance, engineering, data, and finance to bolster its core operations.
- Additionally, Flutterwave is expanding its remittance service, Sendwave, to new markets and exploring ways to personalize its enterprise payment solutions.
