Sierra Leone’s homegrown fintech Flot, operated by Open Hubb SL Limited, has taken its next major step since launching in April, officially unveiling its Visa card on September 12 in Freetown.
The rollout adds card payments to the banking, transfers and travel booking services the super app has offered since it first went live.
The platform is built around four core services: customers can link accounts directly with Sky Bank Sierra Leone and Zenith Bank Sierra Leone to manage money without visiting a branch; send funds to any mobile money wallet in the country or transfer instantly to other Flot users; access a portfolio of Visa cards, from the entry-level Flot Mint card to the premium Flot Platinum and top-tier Flot Ultra Black cards; and book international flights through Flot Travel.
Speaking at the launch, Flot’s Founder and CEO, David Tamba Kpakima, said the platform was built and delivered in six months, against an industry average of 24 to 28 months for comparable projects, crediting partners including Sky Bank, Zenith Bank, Visa, and GTP Africa.
He said Flot is working to connect with banks and mobile money operators across roughly 40 African countries and to expand coverage to nearly 90 per cent of the eurozone, enabling transfers to European banks and African mobile wallets in 20 seconds.
Kpakima linked that expansion to Africa’s regional integration push, targeted for November, stating that the team is working “over and beyond” to have cross-border capability in place ahead of the deadline. “Today, we have launched our global cards, but the card is only the beginning,” he said.
Delivering the keynote address, First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Fatima Maada Bio, congratulated Kpakima and called the platform’s debut “a celebration of innovation, vision, partnership, and possibilities.” She said financial inclusion is not simply about having access to a bank account, but giving people the tools and opportunity to participate fully in economic life.
She said it takes courage to see an opportunity where others may only see challenges, describing the launch as the start of “a new chapter in Sierra Leone’s financial history.”
First Lady Fatima urged the company to keep trust, security and customer responsiveness central as it scales. She challenged it to serve students making international payments, entrepreneurs doing business beyond Sierra Leone, and professionals crossing borders, while helping build a culture where young people become “creators of technology,” not just consumers of it.
The Minister of Communication, Technology and Innovation, Hon. Salima Bah, welcomed the launch as part of a wider push to grow Sierra Leone’s tech ecosystem, citing plans to bring a Startup Act before Parliament in the first quarter of next year and to establish the country’s first Innovation Investment Fund to widen startup access to financing.
She emphasised the importance of the flot app, citing that it would help make the lives of people easy. “It is important that we really acknowledge and understand the real-life impact this is going to have in everyday people’s lives, in national development, but also in economic development,” she said.
For everyday Sierra Leoneans, traders sourcing goods abroad, students paying for online courses, professionals travelling for work, the app addresses a real gap: much of that activity has historically depended on cash or on handing money to intermediaries, with little protection when things go wrong.
By putting banking, payments and travel in one authenticated, bank-grade encrypted app, Flot is positioning itself as a people-centred answer to that problem, and as evidence that fintech innovation built in Sierra Leone can serve local needs while connecting users to global financial infrastructure.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Rahman Swarray Swaray, placed the launch in the context of a fintech sector that increasingly depends on cross-border trust and connectivity. He said Sierra Leone’s foreign policy is being repositioned so that missions abroad act as “windows to attract investment,” linking private capital and innovation to opportunities at home. He pointed to the National Telecommunications Authority Act as an earlier reform that opened the regulatory space companies like Flot built on.
With some investors reporting difficult experiences trying to do business in Sierra Leone, he said mission front offices are being repurposed for investment facilitation, giving businesses a single point of contact rather than an unclear path to information.
Flot cards are usable wherever Visa is accepted, with Platinum cardholders gaining access to airport lounges worldwide, and the app currently reaches all Mobile Money networks in Sierra Leone.