PawaPay has secured a Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence in Mozambique, giving the pan-African payments company a direct route to more than 12 million active mobile money accounts in the country.
The licence, issued by the Bank of Mozambique through PawaPay’s local subsidiary Quidexplus Mozambique, allows the company to onboard merchants directly and provide regulated payment services in the market.
Mozambique has more than 12 million active mobile money accounts across three major operators: M-Pesa, operated by Vodacom, E-Mola, operated by Movitel, and mKesh, operated by Tmcel.
For PawaPay, the licence gives it a regulated local presence in a market where limited licensed payment infrastructure has made it harder for businesses to operate at scale.
“Mozambique has been one of the most active mobile money markets on the continent for years, but merchants have had no reliable way to operate here at scale,” said Ilídio Matchebe, Mozambique Country Director at PawaPay.
“Becoming one of the first PSPs licensed by the Bank of Mozambique changes that. We can now onboard merchants directly and connect them to the operators their customers already use day to day.”
The company expects to begin merchant onboarding in the coming days, with the licence enabling it to start commercial operations immediately.
PawaPay is also in discussions with M-Pesa, E-Mola and international remittance providers over the expansion of inbound payment flows into Mozambique, pointing to an opportunity beyond domestic merchant payments.
The new licence adds Mozambique to PawaPay’s regulated operations across 23 African markets after gaining a Central Bank of Kenya licence in Kenya last month.
The company processes around 7 million transactions a day for businesses operating in sectors including ride-hailing, remittances, retail and non-governmental organisations.
Founded in 2020, PawaPay says it has processed more than 3.5 billion transactions through its payments infrastructure. Its platform connects businesses to mobile money wallets across African markets through a single API, supporting collections, settlement, foreign exchange and reconciliation.
The Mozambique expansion gives PawaPay a direct foothold in a mobile money market where consumers already rely heavily on digital wallets for everyday payments, while giving international businesses another regulated channel through which to reach customers in the country.
For merchants, the immediate significance of the licence is direct onboarding and access to the country’s three major mobile money networks through PawaPay’s payments infrastructure. PawaPay has an opportunity to capture more payment flows locally as it expands its regulated footprint across Africa.
