The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has quietly ramped up its licensing drive, authorising nine new payment institutions. The additions bring the total number of licensed fintechs to 20 across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), almost doubling from 11 just three months ago.

Côte d’Ivoire leads the latest cohort with three new approvals — Feexpay SA, Cinetpay Africa SA, and Dunya Digital Payment SA CI. In Senegal, Samir Money Senegal SA, Versus Finances Tech-SA, Copay SA, and SESA Digital Finance SA were added to the list. Intouch Guinea-Bissau secured its licence, as did Intouch Togo.

For a region where regulatory change often moves at the pace of a camel caravan, this licensing sprint is notable. The BCEAO, once accused of being too cautious, is suddenly distributing permits at a clip that suggests a newfound enthusiasm for digital finance — or at least, for regulating it.

Carrot and Very Large Stick

This licensing wave lands in the middle of a much broader regulatory push. Earlier this year, the BCEAO introduced Instruction №001–01–2024, requiring all digital payment providers to secure direct authorisation. The original enforcement date of May 1, 2025, resulted in a flurry of service disruptions as unlicensed players — some with millions of users — were forced offline.

Fintechs, their investors, and not a few policymakers pushed back, warning that cutting off services without alternatives would leave customers stranded. The central bank, perhaps surprised by the backlash, granted a reprieve. The compliance deadline was extended to August 31, 2025.

Governor Jean-Claude Kassi Brou’s statement in May made the stakes plain: “From September 1, 2025, only licensed entities will be permitted to offer payment services within the Union.”

Enter the PI-SPI

The regulatory hard line comes with a shiny new incentive. The BCEAO has confirmed that its long-awaited regional instant payment system — the Plateforme Interopérable du Système de Paiement Instantané (PI-SPI) — will go live on September 30, 2025.

In its characteristically understated prose, the central bank said the system has been in live testing since June 5 with a “sample of customers” to confirm “reliability, security, and fluidity.” In practice, PI-SPI promises something customers have been demanding for years: seamless, 24/7 transfers between banks, mobile money operators, and microfinance institutions across all eight WAEMU countries.

Given that over 70% of electronic transactions in the union now occur via mobile wallets, this is less a revolutionary leap forward than a long-overdue correction. Still, for ordinary users, it should mean fewer headaches trying to send money between an Orange Money wallet and a traditional bank account.

Winners and Losers

For licensed players, PI-SPI represents a golden key. They will gain access to a modern, region-wide payments backbone designed to improve traceability and integrate with continental systems like the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).

For unlicensed fintechs, however, it will be the closed system powering their competitors. Unless they clear the licensing hurdle, they will find themselves locked out of the very infrastructure they helped to make necessary.

Legacy banks — which have long watched mobile money operators chip away at their dominance — are unlikely to complain. Regulators, for their part, get stronger oversight of monetary flows in a region where informality remains the norm.

The reluctant embrace

The BCEAO insists that all this is about levelling the playing field, ensuring security, and fostering inclusion. Fintechs see it somewhat differently: as a high-stakes race to satisfy a costly and complex licensing process, often at odds with the scrappy, growth-at-all-costs model that got them this far.

The licensing surge suggests the BCEAO is serious about bringing order to the chaos. But whether this amounts to enabling innovation or taming it into bureaucratic submission depends on where one sits.

What is certain is that with licences in hand, September promises opportunity. For everyone else, it may mark the end of the fintech free-for-all in Francophone West Africa.