African unicorn, Flutterwave, has appointed seasoned finance titan Morounke Olufemi as its new Global Chief Financial Officer (CFO), entrusting one of Africa’s premier fintech enterprises to a tested institutional leader.
Olufemi steps into the global seat following the planned exit of Mitesh Popat, who is stepping down from day-to-day CFO responsibilities to pursue entrepreneurial ambitions as co-founder of Next Communications, an enterprise dedicated to transforming telecom infrastructure into digital capabilities for modern brands. Popat will not be severing ties completely; he transitions into a role as strategic adviser to the fintech giant.
Olufemi, who joined Flutterwave in June 2025 as CFO for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), has spent over a year working shoulder-to-shoulder with Popat across more than 30 countries.
Flutterwave Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, framed the appointment as a strategic milestone for the company’s forward momentum:
“Over the past year, she has effectively led Flutterwave’s EMEA financial operations and has a proven track record, particularly from her recent experience at one of Africa’s largest financial institutions.”
The Architect Behind the Balance Sheet: Who Is Morounke Olufemi?
To understand Morounke Olufemi is to trace a deliberate, quarter-century odyssey across the bedrock of international finance. Grounded by a BSc (Hons) in Economics from City, University of London, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Durham, Olufemi refined her leadership perspective through executive programmes at the University of Oxford and Switzerland’s Centre for Creative Leadership.
A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) since 2010, her pedigree traces from the analytical crucibles of Lehman Brothers Investment Bank Europe and AXA XL to monumental leadership across sub-Saharan Africa.
She is not merely a custodian of ledger balances; she is a builder of institutional engines. Agboola described her as the financial leader that flutterwave needs.
“Morounke has demonstrated that she is the financial leader we need at this moment.”
During her tenure at Old Mutual West Africa, Olufemi pushed beyond conventional balance-sheet governance, diving into business development and complex asset deployment.
She co-piloted the landmark establishment of a $500 million real estate investment fund alongside a $200 million agriculture investment vehicle with the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) in 2016—directing institutional capital directly into job creation and long-term socio-economic growth.
Later, as Group Chief Financial Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Olufemi operated at the helm of a banking powerhouse whose reach spanned banking, payments, pensions, and asset management across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
There, she handled high-stakes financial engineering with unflinching poise: spearheading the mobilization of $300 million in Additional Tier 1 capital in 2023, steering the group’s landmark 2024 rights issuance through Central Bank recapitalisation headwinds, and orchestrating M&A transactions that carved out the second-largest Pension Fund Administrator in Nigeria.
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At Flutterwave, that institutional muscle meets an accelerating hyper-growth trajectory. Having crossed the monumental milestone of 1 billion processed transactions and upwards of $40 billion in aggregate payment volume, the fintech is evolving into a mature financial institution. With wallet collections surging by 289% and bank transfer values climbing 184%, the platform is moving from scrappy expansion to disciplined, global-grade resilience.
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Speaking about the appointment, Olufemi said that the financial trajectory of Fluttervwave remains firmly on course, adding that she’s excited to step into the global CFO role.
“We will continue executing our strategy with a focus on capital discipline, margin growth, and sustainable profitability,” she said. “I look forward to working with our global teams to drive long-term value for all our stakeholders.”
Hence, bringing Olufemi into the global CFO seat signals Flutterwave’s calculated shift toward capital rigor, margin preservation, and long-term enterprise sustainability.