How do payment processing licences map across African markets?
Payment processing is licensed under 28 local licence categories across 37 African markets — each normalized to the same canonical activity, so a licence in one market maps to its equivalent in another. Each market's local category name, regulator and source is below; local scope still differs, so the mapping is at the activity level, not word-for-word.
Regulators name this licence differently market by market: Aggregator in Rwanda, Établissement de paiement (Payment Institution) across the WAEMU (UMOA/UEMOA) union, Agregador de pagamento (Payment aggregator) in Mozambique, System Operator in South Africa, plus 17 more in the table below. The same authorization is asked about under other names too: payment service provider (PSP), payment gateway or acquiring.
Maintained: this official source is re-checked on a weekly schedule — last checked 2026-08-04 · unchanged since the previous check.
“Payment processing” here is the normalized activity: Provide payment processing / payment solution services without holding customer funds. Providers in this category cannot keep customers' money.
Activity id (as used by the Afriset MCP): fintech:PAYMENT_PROCESSING
| Market | Local licence category | Regulator | Licensed | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya | Electronic Retail Payment Service Provider | Central Bank of Kenya | 0 | view register |
| Nigeria | Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) Authorisation | Central Bank of Nigeria | 0 | who's licensed |
| Nigeria | Switching & Processing Licence Category | Central Bank of Nigeria | 19 | who's licensed |
| Rwanda | Aggregator | National Bank of Rwanda | 32 | who's licensed |
| Tanzania | Payment Service Provider | Bank of Tanzania | 70 | who's licensed |
| Uganda | Payment Service Provider | Bank of Uganda | 8 | who's licensed |
| South Africa | Third Party Payment Provider | South African Reserve Bank | 365 | who's licensed |
| South Africa | System Operator | South African Reserve Bank | 99 | who's licensed |
| Zambia | Payment Aggregation Service Provider | Bank of Zambia | 3 | who's licensed |
| Ethiopia | Payment System Operator (POS & Payment Gateway Operator) | National Bank of Ethiopia | 19 | who's licensed |
| Zimbabwe | Electronic payment processing (EFT / payment gateway) | Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe | 5 | who's licensed |
| Benin | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 2 | who's licensed |
| Burkina Faso | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 2 | who's licensed |
| Côte d'Ivoire | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 9 | who's licensed |
| Guinea-Bissau | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 1 | who's licensed |
| Mali | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 2 | who's licensed |
| Niger | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 1 | who's licensed |
| Senegal | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 11 | who's licensed |
| Togo | Établissement de paiement WAEMU | Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) | 3 | who's licensed |
| Cameroon | Établissement de paiement CEMAC | Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale (COBAC) | 2 | who's licensed |
| Central African Republic | Établissement de paiement CEMAC | Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale (COBAC) | 0* | who's licensed |
| Congo-Brazzaville | Établissement de paiement CEMAC | Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale (COBAC) | 2 | who's licensed |
| Gabon | Établissement de paiement CEMAC | Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale (COBAC) | 2 | who's licensed |
| Equatorial Guinea | Établissement de paiement CEMAC | Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale (COBAC) | 0* | who's licensed |
| Chad | Établissement de paiement CEMAC | Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale (COBAC) | 1 | who's licensed |
| Morocco | Établissement de paiement offrant des produits et services de paiement | Bank Al-Maghrib | 16 | who's licensed |
| DR Congo | Agrégateur (prestataire de services connexes de paiement) | Banque Centrale du Congo | 39 | who's licensed |
| Mozambique | Agregador de pagamento | Banco de Moçambique | 1 | who's licensed |
| Angola | Sociedade Prestadora de Serviços de Pagamentos | Banco Nacional de Angola | 18 | who's licensed |
| Mauritius | Payment Service Provider | Bank of Mauritius | 5 | who's licensed |
| Namibia | Third-party payment service provider | Bank of Namibia | 10 | who's licensed |
| Namibia | Payment facilitator service provider | Bank of Namibia | 9 | who's licensed |
| Botswana | Account Based Payment Services | Bank of Botswana | 7 | who's licensed |
| Malawi | Payment Service Provider (Other PSP) | Reserve Bank of Malawi | 10 | who's licensed |
| Tunisia | Établissement de paiement | Banque Centrale de Tunisie | 7 | who's licensed |
| Burundi | Établissement agrégateur de paiement (fournisseur de plateforme de paiement) | Banque de la République du Burundi | 1 | who's licensed |
| The Gambia | Payment service provider | Central Bank of The Gambia | 0 | view register |
| Seychelles | Payment service provider | Central Bank of Seychelles | 4 | who's licensed |
| Cabo Verde | Instituição de pagamento | Banco de Cabo Verde | 1 | who's licensed |
| Sierra Leone | Payment service provider | Bank of Sierra Leone | 0 | view register |
* The regulator publishes a count of licence holders for this category, not a named register (CEMAC — COBAC); the figure is that recorded count.
Why the mapping isn't word-for-word
Each regulator names and scopes its categories differently — that's exactly why Afriset normalizes them to canonical activities. Equivalence here is at the activity level: these are the licence categories in each market mapped to the same normalized activity. Local scope differences (caps, tiers, permitted operations) are recorded on each category's register page. In the WAEMU union, the category is licensed at the BCEAO level and applies across all member states. In the CEMAC union, the category is licensed at the COBAC level and applies across all member states.
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