Pawapay Wins Bank Of Mozambique Payments Licence

PawaPay has received a payment service provider (PSP) licence from the Bank of Mozambique, allowing the payments aggregator to onboard merchants directly and offer regulated services in the country.

The central bank granted the licence to PawaPay’s subsidiary, Quidexplus Mozambique. Mozambique has more than 12 million active mobile money accounts across three operators: Vodacom’s M-PESA, Movitel’s e-Mola and Ymcel’s mKesh.

Ilídio Matchebe, PawaPay’s Mozambique Country Director, said: “Mozambique has been one of the most active mobile money markets on the continent for years.” Merchants had no reliable way to operate there at scale, he said. “We can now onboard merchants directly and connect them to the operators their customers already use day to day.”

Connecting Africa reported that Matchebe described PawaPay as among the first PSPs licensed by the Bank of Mozambique. The outlet gave this as a paraphrase, not a direct quote.

PawaPay has expanded to 23 African markets since its 2020 launch and handles about 7 million transactions a day. Its clients include ride-hailing, remittance, retail and non-governmental organisations.

In August 2025, PawaPay partnered with Airtel Money Africa to enable cross-border payments for licensed international money transfer operators across seven Airtel Africa markets.