A sweeping regulatory clampdown by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has left dozens of fintechs across Francophone West Africa in disarray, forcing many to suspend operations and throwing millions of users into financial limbo.
At the centre of the disruption is a May 1 directive from the BCEAO, requiring all digital payment providers in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) to obtain formal licensing or cease operations. The order followed a 15-month transition period, yet as of the deadline, not a single license had been issued. The first batch of approvals came only five days later, on May 6 — too late for fintechs whose systems had already ground to a halt.
The fallout has been immediate and severe.
“Several Senegalese fintech companies are at risk of collapse. Many people will lose their jobs,” said Mohamed Thiam, CTO of local HR fintech Socium. “An entire ecosystem is being jeopardized. This was and remains avoidable.”
A sector silenced overnight
Since May 1, users of fintech services in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, and other WAEMU states have reported frozen wallets, failed merchant transactions, and blocked salaries. The shutdown affects companies ranging from micro-lenders to mobile money aggregators — many of which have operated in the region for years without formal licenses under a previously permissive regulatory environment.
A Dakar-based lawyer working with affected startups described the damage as “immeasurable,” warning that “many people will not recover from this week of shutdown.” One fintech founder reportedly lost an investment deal because their license application, filed months earlier, was still under review.
WAEMU’s digital economy, long touted as a beacon of financial inclusion, is now under significant stress.
“Billions of CFA francs in transactions are frozen, and trust in regulatory authorities is beginning to erode,” a regional fintech operator told Sifted on condition of anonymity.
The regulation behind the freeze
Instruction №001–01–2024, issued in January 2024, set out to bring regulatory clarity to WAEMU’s burgeoning fintech sector. It introduced licensing requirements for payment institutions (Établissements de Paiement), ranging from aggregators to wallet and transfer services. Requirements include:
- Minimum capital of CFA 10m to CFA 100m (€16,500 to €165,000)
- Local incorporation within WAEMU
- AML/CFT compliance, data localisation, and fraud protection
An initial six-month transition was extended by another six months, setting a firm deadline of January 31, 2025, which was further clarified by BCEAO’s Notice №004–03–2025 requiring unlicensed operators to cease activities from May 1, 2025.
Still, no license approvals were published by that date. By the time the BCEAO began issuing the first permits — on May 6 — damage had already been done.
The first approvals trickle in
As of May 9, only a handful of fintechs have received BCEAO approval, with no official list yet published on the central bank’s website. A provisional list compiled by Mathias Léopoldie, CEO of Julaya, based on public disclosures, shows limited progress:
- Côte d’Ivoire: InTouch (EP.CI.002/2025), SycaPay, Bloom Card
- Senegal: PayDunya (EP.SN.001/2025)
- Niger: i-futur (EP.NG.001/2025)
No approvals have yet been confirmed in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, or Guinea-Bissau.
“After about a year and a half, we don’t have half a dozen approved players — including major market actors. That’s not insignificant,” said Eric-Franklin Tavares, regional operations manager at Paylican, a fintech based in Abidjan. “Once again, a regulator inspired by the European Union has embarked on overregulating a sector it struggles to understand.”
Economic shockwaves
The impact of the suspension has rippled far beyond the fintech startups themselves. In Senegal, partial outages were reported by Wave and Orange Money, while in Côte d’Ivoire, platforms like Banxaas confirmed total service disruption.
Small and medium businesses, heavily reliant on mobile money for day-to-day transactions, are bearing the brunt. E-commerce merchants have seen a steep decline in sales, and companies that used fintechs for payroll are scrambling for alternatives.
“We’re negotiating with the BCEAO, but until we get approval, all transactions are frozen,” said one startup founder. “Many salaries and vendor payments won’t go through.”
Some fintechs, including DEXCHANGE, issued public statements acknowledging the disruption and assuring users that they are working toward compliance. However, without clear timelines from the BCEAO, the uncertainty persists.
A trust deficit
Critics argue that the BCEAO’s failure to communicate licensing decisions ahead of the May 1 deadline has undermined confidence in the regulatory process — and could chill investment in a sector once hailed for its dynamism.
“Today it’s the fintechs. Tomorrow, another measure could jeopardize any other company or startup in our ecosystem,” warned Socium’s Mohamed Thiam.
While the central bank maintains that the directive is necessary to ensure consumer protection and reduce systemic risk, stakeholders say the abruptness of its enforcement — combined with the opacity of the licensing process — threatens to undo a decade of progress in digital financial inclusion.
What now?
For now, the region’s fintech sector remains in regulatory limbo. More licenses are expected to be issued in the coming weeks, but without an official, public BCEAO registry or timeline, firms are left guessing.
“The silence from the regulator is damaging,” said a Dakar-based ecosystem builder. “Startups need predictability — not policy by surprise.”
Until then, millions of users and hundreds of startups must adapt to a cash-reliant work-around, as Francophone West Africa undergoes one of its most disruptive fintech transitions yet.