Four months after three finance executives departed from Flutterwave, Bode Abifarin has announced her resignation as the fintech’s chief operating officer (COO).
Abifarin, who has been with Flutterwave for six years, decided to step down to dedicate her efforts to empowering upcoming generations of entrepreneurs, citing her passion for the cause.
Having spent over 15 years at KPMG Nigeria, Abifarin took a bold step in 2018 by joining the fintech startup as its COO.
Essential in leading the company throughout its revolutionary journey during her tenure, in March 2021, Flutterwave made headlines with the announcement of a $170 million Series C funding round, propelling its valuation beyond the billion-dollar mark.
“In this next phase, I will be sharing a lot more using my voice and my pen. I will continue to nurture new businesses and focus on building, teaching and education. There are a lot more things in the pipeline and I’ll inform you as we go. Thank you for staying with me and being part of my journey,” she shares in a LinkedIn post.
In November 2023, Oneal Bhambani, Flutterwave’s former CFO, announced his departure on LinkedIn, along with Oscar Lan, former Global Head of Strategic Finance and FP&A, and Rebecca Mendel, Controller, after a year and six months with the company.
This exit occurred weeks after documents obtained by investigative journalist David Hundeyin disclosed that the founders of Flutterwave were the subject of a 2017 fraud investigation.
May 2022 saw the hiring of Bhambani, who had previously served as CFO at American Express, as CFO of Flutterwave, a month after the African unicorn was accused of insider trading and fraud.
Two months later, the company was accused of money laundering in Kenya. A Kenyan court authorised the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) to block accounts worth more than $40 million that belonged to Flutterwave.
In July 2023, the court denied the anti-money laundering agency’s request to withdraw the lawsuit against the Nigerian fintech. However, in November 2023, a Kenyan High Court granted the ARA’s request to dismiss its final lawsuit against Flutterwave.