Introducing Merchant Interoperability

With Onafriq's new Merchant Interoperability capability, mobile money users can now make cross-border payments into merchant wallets.

Across Africa, people pay bills, buy goods and services locally, and manage their financial lives using their wallets.

However, a person travelling to another country or needing to pay for goods in a neighbouring country would still find it difficult to pay merchants when using the same wallet, due to expensive intermediaries, slow processing times, and limited access to merchants outside the home network.

How Onafriq is enabling cross-border merchant payments

Merchant Interoperability is now live with MTN Rwanda, enabling customers to make cross-border payments directly to participating merchants' mobile money wallets in Rwanda.

Whether paying for school fees, insurance, healthcare, utilities, or other services, payments are delivered directly into merchant wallets, making cross-border payments simpler and more secure.

What are the use cases for Merchant Interoperability?

• Roaming mobile money payments: Users travelling across borders can pay merchants directly from their home wallet, just as they already use roaming data and airtime.
• Remote payments to merchants: Merchants can receive payments from customers abroad. A Tanzanian customer buying timber from a Rwandan business pays directly to the merchant's mobile wallet.

Extending cross-border interoperability to merchant payments

Merchant Interoperability extends the same infrastructure that powers person-to-person mobile wallet transfers to merchant payments across African markets, moving the continent closer to a fully connected payments ecosystem.

Have questions about Merchant Interoperability? Contact your account manager or get in touch with our team.