In a ceremony steeped in regional symbolism, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) officially launched its Interoperable Instant Payment Platform—known as PI-SPI—at an event in Dakar, marking what officials hope will be a transformative shift in the financial landscape of the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). With the national flags of member states fluttering in the background, Governor Jean-Claude Kassi Brou declared the PI-SPI BCEAO launch a triumph of unity, calling the platform a “unified regional instant payment system designed for everyone” that would “erase the boundaries” between banks, microfinance institutions, and e-money providers.
For years, the region’s payment ecosystem has been fractured: transferring funds from a bank account to a mobile money wallet often required multiple steps, incurred high fees, or was simply not possible. The PI-SPI aims to end that fragmentation by enabling real-time, round-the-clock transactions across any participating institution—free for individual users. At the heart of the system is a single, standardized QR code, intended to serve as a universal gateway for digital payments regardless of provider.
“The goal is inclusion, efficiency, and sovereignty,” said Guy Martial Awona, head of the regional banking federation, hailing the rollout as a “major step forward” in creating a seamless, modern financial infrastructure across Francophone West Africa.
Yet amid the celebration, a conspicuous silence loomed. Wave, the American-backed fintech unicorn that has rapidly captured millions of users across Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and beyond with its low-cost, high-efficiency model, was absent from the list of 31 authorized institutions at launch. So too were major players like MTN Mobile Money, Société Générale’s regional network, UBA, and Bank of Africa—casting doubt on the platform’s reach and raising urgent questions about adoption, compliance, and regulatory authority.
Wave’s exclusion is particularly striking. The company built its $1.7 billion valuation on the promise of frictionless interoperability—the very goal the PI-SPI now claims to fulfill. Its absence suggests either a failure to meet the central bank’s new licensing requirements or a deliberate strategic decision to remain outside the state-led system.
That decision may reflect deeper tensions over control of the region’s financial future. Earlier in 2024, the BCEAO introduced Instruction №001–01–2024, a stringent new licensing framework that mandates compliance with data localization, cybersecurity, and governance standards. From September 1, 2025, only licensed entities will be permitted to offer payment services in WAEMU—a hardline approach positioning the PI-SPI not just as a technological upgrade but as the centerpiece of a broader regulatory gatekeeping strategy.
The launch roster thus functions as a public scorecard: Coris Bank Group earned authorization in all eight countries, while Orange made a strong showing through its mobile and banking arms. Others, however, appear to lag—either entangled in technical integration, stalled by bureaucratic hurdles, or choosing resistance over compliance.
Financial analyst Dr. Seydou Bocoum described Wave’s stance as a “silent earthquake” in a widely circulated commentary, arguing that de facto monetary sovereignty in the region may have already shifted from the central bank to private, foreign-owned platforms. “The BCEAO can issue regulations, but if dominant actors operate beyond enforcement reach, its authority remains symbolic,” he wrote. “Wave controls transaction volume, user trust, and its own infrastructure—three pillars of power no regulator can ignore.”
Indeed, for millions of users, Wave is the financial system—a tightly integrated “walled garden” so efficient and accessible that the benefits of joining a government-run interoperability platform may seem marginal. This reality exposes a structural vulnerability: under the CFA franc arrangement, which pegs the regional currency to the euro, the BCEAO often aligns its regulatory pace with European precedent. But with the European Parliament still finalizing rules around the digital euro and crypto assets, the central bank operates in what some call a “legal void”—lacking the jurisdictional leverage to compel a global fintech with MiCA-compliant potential to join its fold.
Meanwhile, Wave’s access to stablecoins and cross-border capital flows gives it alternative pathways to scale—potentially bypassing the entire regional architecture the BCEAO has spent years designing.
As one observer put it: the central bank has built a state-of-the-art train station, only to find the most popular transport operator has already launched its own airline.
The PI-SPI BCEAO launch remains a landmark achievement—an engineering feat, a political statement, and a bold push toward financial integration. But its success will not be measured by the ribbon-cutting, nor even by initial adoption. It will be determined by whether it can attract the dominant players whose networks define daily economic life for tens of millions.
Because in the battle for control of financial flows, technology is only half the story. The other half is power—and right now, it’s unclear who holds it.
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