How mobile money interoperability works
How wallets, banks and national switches connect: the models, what happens to one payment from end to end, how settlement works, and what it means for your launch.
Customers no longer accept a wallet that only pays people on the same network. Regulators across Africa now push, and often require, wallets to connect to each other and to banks. This paper explains the models, walks through one payment, and lists what to settle, reconcile and test before you connect.
Written for
Product, technology and finance leads at e-money issuers, banks and fintechs that must connect to other wallets, banks or a national switch.
Key takeaways
- Interoperability covers four things: wallet to wallet, wallet to bank, merchant payments and, in some markets, cash-out at another provider's agent.
- A national switch is now the common model: one connection reaches every participant.
- Every cross-network payment has a name check, a debit, a credit and a confirmation; the hard part is the payment that times out in between.
- Settlement between providers happens later than the customer's payment. Your books must show what you owe and what you are owed at any moment.
- Treat reconciliation breaks and disputes between providers as a daily process, not an exception.
What's inside
- 1. What interoperability means
- 2. Three ways to connect
- 3. One payment, step by step
- 4. Settlement: who pays whom, and when
- 5. Fees and pricing
- 6. Standards worth following
- 7. The daily operations nobody plans for
- 8. How PesaBridge handles interoperability
- Before you connect
This paper is general guidance, not legal advice. Scheme rules, fees and settlement arrangements differ by country and change over time; confirm them with the switch operator, your regulator and legal counsel.
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Read the summaryÀwọn ìbéèrè nípa ọ̀nà iṣẹ́ àti ìbáṣepọ̀
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Àwọn ọ̀nà àǹfààní
Dé gbogbo oníbàárà, bí wọ́n ṣe ń san yòówù.
Àpapọ̀ àǹfààní àpò owó tí o tò fún ẹ̀ka olùmúlò kọ̀ọ̀kan — oníbàárà, aṣojú tàbí oníṣòwò — káàkiri gbogbo ọ̀nà.
Ọ̀nà àti ìsopọ̀
So ohun tí ọjà rẹ nílò nìkan pọ̀.
Àwọn ọ̀nà jẹ́ adápítà tí o lè fi kún pẹ̀lú ìsopọ̀ kan — gbà, san, iye àti ìpè-padà — kí olùsopọ̀ tuntun má ṣe fọwọ́kan ẹ̀rọ náà.
Àwọn báǹkì
Ìsanwó RTGS / ACH / SWIFT / SEPA àti ìṣàkóso nostro.
Owó alágbèéká
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Ẹ̀rọ náà
Gbogbo ohun tí àpò owó nílò — ẹ̀rọ kan, àmì tìrẹ.
Ìrírí àwọn áàpù tí àwọn ènìyàn fẹ́ràn, ìgbòòrò ẹ̀rọ ìnáwó tó ṣe pàtàkì, àti ààbójútó SaaS tó ń ṣàkóso gbogbo rẹ̀ láìsí kóòdù.
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