Flutterwave · Controlled Vocabulary

Flutterwave Vocabulary

Domain vocabulary for the Flutterwave for Business (F4B) v4 platform. Captures core concepts, payment rails, payout rails, and ancillary services used across the API surface.

35 Terms 4 Groups Updated 2026-05-24
View Vocabulary File View on GitHub

Flutterwave Vocabulary is a controlled vocabulary published by Flutterwave on the APIs.io network, defining 35 terms.

The terms are organized into 4 groups — concepts, payment_rails, payout_rails, and ancillary_services.

Defined terms include Charge, Customer, Order, Payment Method, and Orchestrator.

A controlled vocabulary pins the words an API’s schemas, parameters and documentation use to one agreed definition each — the shared language a human or an agent needs to read the API the same way its authors do.

Term Groups

concepts 16 payment_rails 6 payout_rails 3 ancillary_services 10

Terms

Charge
A request to collect money from a customer via a specific payment method.
Customer
A person or business that owns charges, orders, and transfers on the merchant account.
Order
A server-side cart object that bundles line items and a customer for a checkout session.
Payment Method
A tokenised representation of how a customer pays — card, mobile money, bank transfer, USSD, or OPay.
Orchestrator
A helper endpoint that creates the customer, payment method, and charge (or order, or transfer) in one atomic call.
Transfer
A payout from the merchant balance to a recipient's bank account, mobile wallet, or wallet account.
Recipient
The destination of a payout — identified by bank account, mobile money number, or wallet account.
Sender
The KYC'd originator of a cross-border payout (regulator-mandated for remittance corridors).
Settlement
An aggregate of successful charges netted against fees and paid out to the merchant's settlement account.
Refund
A reversal of all or part of a previously successful charge.
Chargeback
A customer-initiated dispute that reverses a charge until evidence is provided.
Virtual Account
A bank account number (NUBAN) issued to a customer or merchant for collecting bank transfer payments.
Wallet
A multi-currency balance held by the merchant on Flutterwave.
Fee
The Flutterwave-computed charge applied to a transaction.
Idempotency
A guarantee that retried POST requests with the same `X-Idempotency-Key` produce the same response.
Encryption
Client-side AES-256 encryption of sensitive card fields with a 12-character nonce.
Card Payments card
Visa, Mastercard, Verve, AMEX (where available).
Mobile Money mobile_money
M-Pesa (Kenya, Tanzania), MTN MoMo (multiple), Airtel Money, Tigo, Vodafone Cash.
Pay With Bank Transfer bank_transfer
NGN virtual NUBAN-based collection.
USSD ussd
Offline payment via mobile network USSD strings.
OPay Wallet opay
Collect from OPay wallet balances.
Visa QR qr
QR-code-based payment.
Bank Account Transfer bank_account
Domestic and cross-border bank account credits.
Mobile Money Transfer mobile_money
Payouts to mobile wallets.
Wallet-to-Wallet wallet_to_wallet
Movement between Flutterwave wallets.
Card Issuing
Virtual card creation for cardholder programs.
KYC
Identity verification APIs.
Bill Payments
Airtime, data, electricity, cable TV bill payments.
Send App
Consumer-facing remittance app.
Swap
Currency exchange between NGN, USD, EUR, GBP.
Afritickets
Event ticketing platform.
Market
Online marketplace.
Disha
Free creator website builder.
Store
Free ecommerce store builder.
Tuition
School fee payments.

Controlled Vocabulary

Raw ↑ 
name: Flutterwave Vocabulary
providerId: flutterwave
created: '2026-05-24'
modified: '2026-05-24'
description: Domain vocabulary for the Flutterwave for Business (F4B) v4 platform. Captures core concepts, payment
  rails, payout rails, and ancillary services used across the API surface.
tags:
  - Payments
  - Payouts
  - Mobile Money
  - Cards
  - Africa
  - Fintech
concepts:
  - term: Charge
    description: A request to collect money from a customer via a specific payment method.
    examples: [card charge, mobile money charge, bank transfer charge]
  - term: Customer
    description: A person or business that owns charges, orders, and transfers on the merchant account.
  - term: Order
    description: A server-side cart object that bundles line items and a customer for a checkout session.
  - term: Payment Method
    description: A tokenised representation of how a customer pays — card, mobile money, bank transfer, USSD, or OPay.
  - term: Orchestrator
    description: A helper endpoint that creates the customer, payment method, and charge (or order, or transfer) in one
      atomic call.
  - term: Transfer
    description: A payout from the merchant balance to a recipient's bank account, mobile wallet, or wallet account.
  - term: Recipient
    description: The destination of a payout — identified by bank account, mobile money number, or wallet account.
  - term: Sender
    description: The KYC'd originator of a cross-border payout (regulator-mandated for remittance corridors).
  - term: Settlement
    description: An aggregate of successful charges netted against fees and paid out to the merchant's settlement account.
  - term: Refund
    description: A reversal of all or part of a previously successful charge.
  - term: Chargeback
    description: A customer-initiated dispute that reverses a charge until evidence is provided.
  - term: Virtual Account
    description: A bank account number (NUBAN) issued to a customer or merchant for collecting bank transfer payments.
  - term: Wallet
    description: A multi-currency balance held by the merchant on Flutterwave.
  - term: Fee
    description: The Flutterwave-computed charge applied to a transaction.
  - term: Idempotency
    description: A guarantee that retried POST requests with the same `X-Idempotency-Key` produce the same response.
  - term: Encryption
    description: Client-side AES-256 encryption of sensitive card fields with a 12-character nonce.
payment_rails:
  - id: card
    name: Card Payments
    description: Visa, Mastercard, Verve, AMEX (where available).
  - id: mobile_money
    name: Mobile Money
    description: M-Pesa (Kenya, Tanzania), MTN MoMo (multiple), Airtel Money, Tigo, Vodafone Cash.
  - id: bank_transfer
    name: Pay With Bank Transfer
    description: NGN virtual NUBAN-based collection.
  - id: ussd
    name: USSD
    description: Offline payment via mobile network USSD strings.
  - id: opay
    name: OPay Wallet
    description: Collect from OPay wallet balances.
  - id: qr
    name: Visa QR
    description: QR-code-based payment.
payout_rails:
  - id: bank_account
    name: Bank Account Transfer
    description: Domestic and cross-border bank account credits.
  - id: mobile_money
    name: Mobile Money Transfer
    description: Payouts to mobile wallets.
  - id: wallet_to_wallet
    name: Wallet-to-Wallet
    description: Movement between Flutterwave wallets.
geographies:
  africa:
    - Nigeria
    - Cameroon
    - Egypt
    - Ghana
    - Ivory Coast
    - Kenya
    - Malawi
    - Mauritius
    - Rwanda
    - Senegal
    - South Africa
    - Tanzania
    - Uganda
    - Zambia
  global:
    - United Kingdom
    - United States
    - European Union
ancillary_services:
  - name: Card Issuing
    description: Virtual card creation for cardholder programs.
  - name: KYC
    description: Identity verification APIs.
  - name: Bill Payments
    description: Airtime, data, electricity, cable TV bill payments.
  - name: Send App
    description: Consumer-facing remittance app.
  - name: Swap
    description: Currency exchange between NGN, USD, EUR, GBP.
  - name: Afritickets
    description: Event ticketing platform.
  - name: Market
    description: Online marketplace.
  - name: Disha
    description: Free creator website builder.
  - name: Store
    description: Free ecommerce store builder.
  - name: Tuition
    description: School fee payments.