FlexPay is a digital payment platform developed by INFOSET in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It allows merchants to accept electronic payments from customers using different mobile money networks or local and international bank cards through a single platform. Customers can pay merchants using a merchant code or QR code, while merchants can receive payments into a registered mobile money or bank account.
The platform is part of the evolution in the DRC’s financial technology ecosystem, where mobile money has become an important part of everyday payments and digital platforms are increasingly connecting different payment channels. For FlexPay, the focus is not on creating another isolated wallet. It is on bringing different payment methods together.
From banking technology to digital payments
As mentioned earlier, FlexPay is a product of INFOSET, a Congolese technology company established in 2009. INFOSET began by working across information technology, banking systems, infrastructure and electronic payments. Over the years, it built relationships with major technology companies and financial institutions and became involved in some of the DRC’s foundational payment infrastructure.
In 2014, INFOSET partnered with US-based Montran to provide an automated multi-currency transfer system and central securities depository for the Central Bank of Congo.
A year later, it supported the creation of a private interbank payment switch connecting four major Congolese banks: Rawbank, BCDC, ProCredit and FBNbank.
INFOSET also obtained PCI-DSS certification in 2016, a security standard used across the payment-card industry, and in 2017 partnered with BPC, a global electronic-payment solutions provider, to supply an interbank payment platform in the DRC.
The platform did not exist independently from the country’s existing financial infrastructure. It was developed by a company that had already spent years working on banking, payment and technology systems.
The launch of FlexPay
INFOSET launched its electronic payment platform in 2020 as part of its move into digital payments. The company’s history identifies that year as the launch of its electronic payment platform, designed to facilitate interoperability between mobile-money operators and bank cards.
The following year, INFOSET created Cirrus Business as its fintech arm and launched additional platforms for areas such as small-business digitalisation and education.FlexPay subsequently became the consumer and merchant-facing payment application within this wider technology ecosystem.
Its current terms identify INFOSET Sarl as the company operating FlexPay and describe it as a payment-services aggregator authorised by the Central Bank of Congo under Instruction 42. The authorisation listed by the company dates to April 6, 2020. This places FlexPay within the regulated payment infrastructure of the DRC rather than operating simply as an independent consumer wallet.
How FlexPay works
FlexPay has two main interfaces: one for customers and another for merchants.
A customer can use a mobile-money account or bank card to make a payment to a merchant registered on the platform. The merchant can receive the payment into one of the payment accounts registered with FlexPay.
The platform supports payments using merchant codes and QR codes, giving businesses different ways to present a digital payment option to customers. A merchant does not need to maintain a separate payment experience for every supported network.
Instead, FlexPay provides a common interface through which customers can initiate payments using their preferred payment method.
Connecting mobile money and bank cards
One of FlexPay’s most important features is its ability to bring different payment channels into the same transaction environment. Its terms state that customers can pay merchants using any mobile-money network supported by the service or through a bank card.
The platform can also facilitate transfers from a bank card to a mobile-money account, while users can pre-register different mobile-money accounts and bank cards within the application.
For a market where mobile money is an important part of everyday financial activity, this creates a payment layer that does not require customers and merchants to use the same financial provider.
A customer using one mobile-money service can pay a merchant using FlexPay, while another customer can use a bank card for the same merchant. The merchant receives the transaction through the payment account it has registered with the platform.
QR codes bring another payment layer
QR payments are another part of FlexPay’s merchant infrastructure. Businesses can receive payments through QR codes generated for their merchant accounts. The platform’s merchant pages also provide payment links and QR code options for registered businesses. This allows a merchant to display a QR code at a physical location or use it as part of a digital payment journey.
For customers, the process can be as simple as scanning the code and selecting an available payment method. For merchants, it creates a digital payment point without requiring every customer to carry cash or use the same financial service.
FlexPay is built for merchants as much as customers
The merchant side is central to the platform. FlexPay provides businesses with an account through which they can receive and monitor electronic payments.
Its terms state that merchants can access their transaction history through the FlexPay application or website. The platform’s current merchant directory also shows businesses from different sectors using FlexPay, including fintech, e-commerce, information technology, education and other commercial activities.
That range illustrates the type of ecosystem FlexPay is designed to support.The payment layer can sit behind a traditional physical business, an online merchant or a digital service.
Beyond the wallet
Its terms explicitly state that FlexPay does not own its own electronic wallet. Instead, users connect a bank account or mobile-money account held with a financial institution operating in the DRC.
The funds involved in transactions therefore remain within the accounts maintained by those financial institutions. This distinction helps explain FlexPay’s role in the payment ecosystem.
It is primarily an aggregator and payment technology layer.
Rather than replacing banks and mobile-money operators, it connects their payment capabilities through its application.
That model is particularly useful in an environment with multiple payment providers because the technology can sit between the customer, merchant and financial institutions.
A payment platform built on interoperability
Interoperability is one of the strongest themes in FlexPay’s story. The platform was developed around the idea that digital payments should be able to move across different payment networks and financial channels.
Before FlexPay, the company had already participated in the development of interbank payment infrastructure in the DRC. Its 2015 project connected four major banks through a private interbank switch, while its later partnership with BPC supported the deployment of an interbank payment platform.
FlexPay takes that broader experience into the consumer and merchant payment environment. The technology is different, but the underlying principle is similar: connect financial systems so that users can transact across them.
FlexPay POS and financial innovation
FlexPay has also been recognised for extending its payment technology beyond the mobile application. In 2022, INFOSET’s FlexPay POS won the Financial Innovation for Economic and Social Development category at the DRC Innovation & Financial Services Challenge.
The competition was organised in partnership with the Central Bank of Congo and attracted nearly 100 entries, with six finalists selected across two categories. Each finalist received a $13,000 grant from FSD Africa for the development of its solution.
The recognition placed FlexPay among financial technology projects being considered for their contribution to the development of the DRC’s financial system. It also demonstrated that the platform’s role extends beyond smartphone-based payments. Point-of-sale infrastructure can connect physical commerce to the same digital payment ecosystem.
The technology behind the ecosystem
FlexPay sits on top of a wider technology infrastructure developed by INFOSET.
The parent company specialises in IT infrastructure, data centres, banking systems, enterprise applications and electronic payment systems.
Its work has included banking infrastructure, ATM deployment, payment switches, data-centre virtualisation and electronic payment systems.
That background gives FlexPay a different starting point from many consumer fintech applications.
Its underlying technology comes from a company that has been working with financial infrastructure in the DRC for more than a decade.
INFOSET also maintains technical infrastructure and support operations around its payment systems. The company says it operates monitoring and support services for the financial infrastructure it manages, including systems connecting banks and payment terminals.
Digital payments across different devices
FlexPay is not limited to smartphones.
Its terms state that the service can be accessed through Android and iOS devices as well as basic phones, with USSD access available through participating GSM operators.
That is significant for a payment platform operating across a market where access to smartphones and mobile data can vary.
By supporting different access methods, FlexPay can connect users with different types of devices to the same payment infrastructure.
The objective is not to make every customer interact with the platform in exactly the same way.
It is to make the underlying payment service available across multiple channels.
FlexPay and the DRC’s digital economy
The growth of digital payments is closely connected to the development of commerce in the DRC.
As merchants adopt electronic payments, businesses can receive money through digital channels, customers can pay without cash and transactions can be recorded electronically.
FlexPay contributes to that ecosystem by bringing several payment methods together.
Its merchant model also gives businesses a digital identity within the payment system. Each registered merchant can have a merchant code and payment interface, while QR codes can be used to initiate transactions. Current FlexPay merchant pages show businesses across Kinshasa using the platform for payments.
This creates a network effect around digital commerce.
The more businesses that can accept electronic payments, the more useful digital payment infrastructure becomes to customers.
And as more customers become comfortable paying digitally, merchants have greater reason to provide electronic payment options.
From infrastructure to a bigger digital ecosystem
The company began as an IT and banking-technology provider in 2009 and gradually expanded into payment systems, cloud infrastructure, enterprise technology and digital transformation. Its fintech activities later expanded through Cirrus Business and products such as FlexBiz and SmartSchool, while FlexPay became part of its electronic payments offering.
This means FlexPay is part of a larger technology ecosystem rather than a standalone application. Its role is specifically centred on payments, but the infrastructure around it connects with the wider digital transformation taking place across the DRC.
What comes next for FlexPay
The platform brings mobile money and bank cards into a common payment environment, gives merchants QR codes and payment codes, supports different access channels and allows businesses to receive and track electronic payments.
Its foundation in INFOSET’s banking and payment infrastructure also gives the platform a longer history than its mobile application alone might suggest.
INFOSET has spent years building technology for banks, payment systems and other institutions in the DRC. FlexPay carries that experience into everyday digital commerce.
As digital payments continue to develop across Central Africa, platforms that connect different payment networks will remain an important part of the ecosystem.
For the DRC, FlexPay represents one of those infrastructure layers: a homegrown payment platform built around interoperability, merchant acceptance and the ability to bring different financial channels into one digital payment experience.