The Central Bank of West African States has expanded access to its regional instant payments platform, with 175 financial institutions and payment providers now authorised to offer interoperable services across eight West African countries.
The latest list, published by the BCEAO at the end of September, covers banks, electronic money institutions, fintech companies, microfinance providers and other payment institutions operating across the West African Economic and Monetary Union.
Senegal has the largest number of authorised participants, with 43, followed by Côte d’Ivoire with 38. Burkina Faso has 20 participating institutions, Mali 19, Benin 18, Togo 17, Niger 13 and Guinea-Bissau seven.
The expansion represents a significant step in the development of the BCEAO’s Platform for Interoperable Instant Payment System, known as PI-SPI.
Launched in September 2025, PI-SPI was designed to overcome one of the major barriers to digital payments in the region: the inability of customers using different banks, mobile money services and financial institutions to move money seamlessly between providers.
Through the platform, users can send and receive funds between participating institutions in seconds, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
The growing participation of fintech and mobile money providers is particularly important in a region where large numbers of consumers rely on mobile financial services rather than traditional bank accounts.
Providers including Wave Digital Finance, Orange Mobile Finance and a range of regional fintech and microfinance institutions are now among the authorised participants, alongside major commercial banks.
The expansion also gives PI-SPI a broader role in West Africa’s digital public infrastructure, helping create a common payments layer across Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
The BCEAO has previously described the platform as a key component in developing secure, accessible and instant payments throughout the monetary union. By June 2026, 80 institutions were connected to the system and several million people already had access to its services.
The increase to 175 authorised participants demonstrates the speed at which the regional payments ecosystem is expanding and strengthens the prospect of consumers and businesses being able to move money seamlessly across different providers and national borders.
For West Africa, the development represents another step towards a more interconnected digital economy built around interoperability, financial inclusion and real-time payments.