PawaPay Secures PSP Licence in Mozambique to Unlock Mobile Money for Global Merchants

PawaPay has secured a Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence from the Bank of Mozambique, marking a significant regulatory milestone in one of Africa’s most prolific mobile money ecosystems. For fintech professionals, this provides a rare, fully regulated gateway into a market with over 12 million active accounts, solving a long-standing infrastructure bottleneck for international and local merchants.

What was announced

The licence was granted to PawaPay’s local subsidiary, Quidexplus Mozambique, making it one of the first entities authorised to operate as a PSP in the country. This regulatory approval allows the company to onboard merchants directly and provide a suite of regulated payment services nationwide. Mozambique represents a critical growth area for digital finance, with a mobile money landscape dominated by three primary operators: M-Pesa (Vodacom), E-Mola (Movitel), and mKesh (Tmcel). Despite the presence of 12 million active accounts, the market has historically suffered from a lack of licensed payment infrastructure, which has prevented merchants from scaling their operations effectively.

The new authorisation enables PawaPay to bridge this gap, offering a unified connection to the mobile wallets that Mozambicans use daily. The company is already in advanced discussions with the three major local operators, as well as international remittance providers, to streamline inbound payment flows. With the licence in hand, commercial operations are set to begin immediately, and merchant onboarding is expected to commence within the coming days. This expansion adds to PawaPay’s existing footprint across 23 African markets, where it currently handles approximately 7 million transactions every day for a diverse client base including NGOs, retail brands, remittance firms, and ride-hailing services.

"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. 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."

Ilídio Matchebe, Mozambique Country Director at PawaPay.

The companies involved

PawaPay is a pan-African payments aggregator that specialises in mobile money infrastructure. The company has positioned itself as a critical link between global merchants and African consumers, focusing on high-volume, high-frequency transactions. By operating across 23 different markets on the continent, PawaPay has built a reputation for navigating complex regulatory environments to provide a single point of entry for businesses looking to tap into the African digital economy.

The company’s operations are designed to handle the scale required by modern digital services, currently processing roughly 7 million transactions daily. This scale is supported by a robust technical framework that integrates directly with mobile network operators, bypassing traditional banking rails which often see lower penetration in sub-Saharan Africa. As a specialist in the mobile money space, PawaPay’s entry into Mozambique via its Quidexplus subsidiary reflects its broader strategy of securing local licences to ensure compliance and operational stability in high-growth regions. The firm’s focus remains on sectors that demand reliable, real-time payment processing, such as the gig economy, cross-border remittances, and large-scale retail.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely tracked PawaPay’s rapid expansion and regulatory successes across the continent. Recently, the company reached a major operational landmark, as reported in PawaPay Hits Three Billion Mobile Money Transactions as Daily Volume Doubles. This growth trajectory earned the firm international recognition, detailed in PawaPay Named Among CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026 Following 3 Billion Transaction Milestone.

The Mozambique announcement follows similar regulatory wins elsewhere, including the acquisition of a PawaPay Secures CBK Payment Gateway License to Scale Kenya’s Mobile Money Ecosystem. Beyond licensing, FF News has also covered the company’s strategic commercial moves, such as when PawaPay Partners with Deriv to Support Mobile Money Deposits Across African Markets.

What this means

The Bank of Mozambique’s decision to license PawaPay signals a maturing regulatory environment that is finally catching up to consumer behaviour. For years, the dominance of mobile money in Mozambique existed in a semi-fragmented state for merchants; this move puts pressure on traditional banks and unlicensed aggregators who can no longer compete on regulatory certainty. It raises a critical question for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region: will neighbouring regulators follow this lead in formalising the role of third-party PSPs? As mobile money volumes continue to dwarf traditional card payments in these markets, the "aggregator-as-infrastructure" model is becoming the de facto standard for continental trade.