The Story Behind Flutterwave That The Media Seems To Be Missing

Kenyan media thrives on the sensationalization of matters. Given that the mainstream media is sometimes beaten hands down by social media in terms of “breaking news”, most have learned to capitalize on the use of sensationalization of matters.

sensationalization within the media circles is where a journalist or author writes a story with the first goal in mind being to grasp the attention of the reader. The writer does so by either distorting facts or coming up with a screaming headline that sometimes has nothing inside.

As a journalist, and a lecturer of Journalism and Mass Communication, when it comes to reporting, I have always told my students to remain old school and stick to the 5Ws and 1H. That is, the story, right from the headline should address; What, Who, Where, When, Why, and How.

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At the end of the day, the media still has a responsibility to educate and inform the public. And this can only be done through factual reporting. Unfortunately, the Kenyan mainstream media has fallen short of this glory, to the point that most online sources and blogs are more credible than the mainstream media.

That said and done, I am saying this because I have started becoming uncomfortable with the way the Kenyan media, such as the Daily Nation has been running with stories concerning brands such as Flutterwave. Despite being a journalist, I am also a marketer and an investor. I know how misreporting can cause panic and eventually to the collapse of a brand.

Two months ago, there was a misreporting from a section of the media about the largest Sacco in Kenya; Stima Sacco. Panic gripped those who had their savings with Stima Sacco. Some rushed to withdraw only to turn out that it was a false alarm. Was it not for the consistent communication and factual dissemination of information by the management, Stima Sacco would be past tense by now.

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On Wednesday, there was a screaming story on the Daily Nation and Business Daily claiming that a court had frozen 45 accounts belonging to Flutterwave. That caught my attention and I decided to dig into the matter. As a journalist who has been around for some time, there is always something more than the headline. I wanted to find that something.

Beyond the Daily Nation headline, lies a different story with most facts missing. And I wonder why our journalists find it so hard to pick up a phone and call either party to have facts before penning a piece. I think our editors have also lost the real gist of editing based on facts.

The story was interesting to read but scary. Scary because the goal seems to be to make people panic. Another goal seems to get more readers and clicks. But what are the facts? I realized most of the facts within the story were wrong on Flutterwave.

First things first; who are Flutterwave? Flutterwave Payments Technology Limited, the Kenyan subsidiary of Flutterwave Inc. is a Fintech company that provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.

So the story on the Daily Nation raised four issues; the freezing of the accounts and other three accusations against Flutterwave. On the issue of freezing the accounts, the journalist, who otherwise should have known, is a common thing within cases that often touch on finances and financial institutions. The financial sector is both volatile and sensitive and the first thing that authorities go for when certain matters or transactions are raised, are the accounts, and this includes freezing.

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Second, last year, the Assets Recovery Agency Kenya (ARA) flagged off routine investigations into about 106 Nigerian Businesses for alleged suspicious money movements. Flutterwave was unfortunately one of the 106. As is standard operating procedure, given the sensitive nature of financial services, the ARA requested the courts to freeze our accounts to protect the interests of all parties involved as the ARA conducted its investigations.

Third, in May 2022, Flutterwave noted some irregularities with some merchant transactions in Nigeria and immediately carried out their internal investigations into the merchants. The company identified that some direct merchants of Flutterwave were, without the company’s approval or authorization, processing transactions for/on behalf of 86FB/86Z, on Flutterwave’s platform. As a result, the company notified the merchants of their discovery of their activities and suspended their use of Flutterwave.

Fourth, recently, the company was enjoined as an interested party by LEA Technologies Ltd (Hong Kong), as interested parties in a case about what appears to be a breach of contract by RemX. The matter is still active in court but the piece fails to mention that it is not Flutterwave that is in court.

I can go on and on, but the Flutterwave stories should give us a wake-up call on what we consume from the media. Before Chase Bank went down, the fueling of the matter started from the media. And there are so many examples. My call to journalists, we need views. Yes. But what about facts?

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