EMEA Daily: Flutterwave Launches eNaira Payments for Businesses in Nigeria; Google’s Appeal of EU’s Record Fine Nets 5% Reduction

Today in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Nigerian PayTech Flutterwave has launched support for the eNaira, and Google’s appeal of an EU fine results in a 5% reduction.

Patreon Shuts 2 EU Offices, Cuts 17% of Staff

Entertainment subscription site Patreon will be cutting around 17% of its staff and closing two offices in Europe, a Bloomberg report said.

This will affect 80 employees in operations and finance departments, along with others, according to a statement from CEO Jack Conte. And the closed offices will be in Dublin and Berlin.

Conte said the reason for this came down to “changes in the technology industry and the economy” in the last nine months.

Google’s Appeal of EU’s Record Fine Nets 5% Reduction

Europe’s highest court agreed with European Union antitrust regulators and upheld most of the record $4.33 billion fine levied against Google for favoring its own Android operating system to edge out the competition.

Google’s appeal to overturn the decision resulted in a 5% reduction in the fine, about $215 million, because of a disagreement on one point, according to a court statement released Wednesday (Sept. 14).

“The General Court largely confirms the Commission’s decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine,” the court said.

“In order better to reflect the gravity and duration of the infringement, the General Court considers it appropriate however to impose a fine of  €4.125 billion on Google, its reasoning differing in certain respects from that of the Commission,” judges said.

The Android case, which focused on the tech giant’s influence over the smartphone ecosystem, was the biggest of three antitrust fines totaling more than $8 billion that the European Commission has levied against Google since 2017.

Ebanx Brings Digital Payments Tools to Africa

Global payments FinTech Ebanx is expanding beyond its Latin American roots for the first time and bringing its digital solutions to Africa.

Founded in Brazil, Ebanx spent 10 years expanding to 15 Latin American countries and is now focusing on Africa, which it believes is the next big growth frontier for digital payments and the digital market.

“This is the moment for Africa, and it’s quite reminiscent of the Latin American landscape back in 2012, when Ebanx first began its journey by providing global merchants access to sell more goods and digital services via the internet to Latin Americans through local payment methods,” João Del Valle, CEO and co-founder of Ebanx, said in a press release Wednesday.

Citigroup Continues EMEA Hiring Spree

Citigroup has hired Barry Weir, a 20-year JPMorgan veteran, who will join the bank’s U.K. deals team. The new hire comes amid a global hiring drive at the U.S. investment bank, with a number of announcements in recent months indicating the company’s ambitious employment plans.

Weir, who will join Citigroup’s U.K. investment banking team as a managing director, previously headed various sector teams at JPMorgan, including industrials, energy, metals and mining, and real estate. He was also previously head of U.K. mergers and acquisitions at the bank.

Flutterwave Launches eNaira Payments for Businesses in Nigeria

In what will be perceived as a victory for Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), Flutterwave on Wednesday announced that merchants using the platform can now accept eNaira payments from their customers.

Flutterwave merchants can now enable the eNaira payment option on their dashboard for their customers’ use. To complete transactions on Flutterwave, users can either scan QR codes or generate one-time tokens using the app.

As PYMNTS reported earlier this year, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said that only around 700,000 customers have opened an eNaira wallet since they debuted in 2021, even though there are around 55 million bank accounts in the country.

Read more: Concerns Over Lost Fee Income Prompt Nigerian Lenders to Slow CBDC Adoption

In light of the sluggish initial adoption of the eNaira, the CBN will likely welcome the news that one of the country’s largest payment service providers is rolling out support for the CBDC.

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