Wave Digital Finance, a subsidiary of the Wave Mobile Money (Wave) Group, was granted the Electronic Money Establishment (EME) license by the Central Bank of West African States — BCEAO as the first non-banking structure, non-telecommunications operator operating in several markets within the WAEMU area.
The Central Bank’s decision is a clear indication of the growing acceptance of new models of financial inclusion driven by fintech companies such as Wave.
Until now, the pan-African fintech’s mobile money operations were conducted through partner banks.
Wave will now be able to offer its financial services and products directly to customers through this EME license. Additionally, it will enable the fintech to diversify its value proposition and expand its financial services offerings, including merchant payments, savings, credit, and international money transfers, in partnership with other industry partners.
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Drew Durbin, Chairman and CEO of Wave, expressed his excitement at the Central Bank’s decision: “We are overjoyed to have acquired our EME license.” We are grateful to the Central Bank for endorsing our objective of providing financially accessible and inexpensive services to everybody. The authorities have watched us develop to become Senegal’s largest mobile money service provider in less than four years, with over 6 million monthly active users, and this is only the beginning of a new age of consumer primacy in WAEMU’s mobile money.”
Coura, Mme Carine Sène, Regional Director of Wave in WAEMU, concurs: “This is a watershed moment for us because it reflects both acknowledgement of recent accomplishments and optimism for the future.” more daring. Despite our market leadership, we were unable to provide all of the financial services that we desired to our customers. With this new designation as an Electronic Money Institution, we will have direct access to the Central Bank on an equal footing with our key competitors, and we will be able to contribute more effectively to their aim of fostering financial inclusion in the region. We expect that our new offerings will increase customer acquisition and revenue generation for our distribution partners.”
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Wave’s mobile money service, which began in Senegal in 2018, has already revolutionized the decades-old mobile money sector in the WAEMU region and beyond.
Due to Wave’s unique business model and best-in-class approach to financial inclusion, it is able to offer free bill payments, fee-free money withdrawals and deposits, and transfers at just 1%, which is up to 70% cheaper than competitors’ standard pricing structures.
“Our goal is to immediately expand our license to other WAEMU member countries so that our entire client base in the area can benefit from it as well. Another step toward Wave’s goal of making Africa a cashless continent,” Ms. Sene added.
Wave Mobile Money Wave Mobile Money
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh