Ghana- our journey so far
Waya launched in Ghana for merchants on Founders’ Day in 2019. It started with one merchant in need of mobile money payments from all networks. We found a partner and we were ready. Working with a large company was tedious and required numerous changes to our application. Truthfully, we had designed our application with them in mind. We have since grown beyond that and have a platform able to support several merchants and individual accounts too.
As we prepared to go live with the merchant in March 2020, their operations were grounded in Ghana as the corona virus pandemic took over. Borders closed and Ghana went into lockdown. This pushed us to launch our services for the general public in May 2020. By end of May, we’d processed over $70,000 in transactions. Then disaster struck. It was all going so well.
We had our first “compliance is a b****” moment. So it was back to documentation, Know Your Business (KYB) on-boarding process, trying to explain our operations, clarifying a few things with our partners and having our account changed or upgraded or reinstated- it was all a bit confusing. And this process took just over 2 and half months. Yes, you read that right. Regulation is a pain but it’s a necessary pain (I think!).
Over the last couple of months, we’ve been working tirelessly to restore our services in Ghana. Thankfully, our services in Ghana have been restored and we are grateful to be servicing you once again.
At Waya, we believe mobile money transfers should be FREE. We’re working hard to keep it this way. For now, MoMo transfers in Ghana remain free. This is our mission and one we will try to sustain.
Over the coming weeks, we will introduce new features in version 1.5. Again, mobile money transfers in Ghana will be free and instant — from MTN to Vodafone or AirtelTigo. We cover the costs, so you don’t have to.
All we ask is, give it a try if you haven’t done so already. Simply link Waya to your MoMo and make your transfers. Tell your friends, families and businesses to download Waya Money (android) or sign-up online.
The journey continues …
