Wave West Africa Mobile Money API
Wave West Africa mobile money REST API for businesses to accept and send payments through Wave's zero-fee mobile money platform in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Uganda, enabling merchant collection, bulk disbursement, and payment link generation for Wave's 8M+ users in French-speaking West Africa, where Wave has disrupted traditional mobile money with a zero-fee consumer model. Enables AI agents to manage merchant payment collection for West Africa checkout automation, handle bulk disbursement for West Africa payroll and welfare payment automation, access payment link generation for West Africa invoice payment automation, retrieve transaction status for West Africa payment confirmation automation, manage webhook notification for West Africa payment event automation, access business account balance for Wave business management automation, retrieve transaction history for West Africa payment analytics automation, manage customer lookup for Wave user verification automation, and integrate Wave with West African NGO, microfinance, merchant, and enterprise platforms for end-to-end French-speaking West Africa mobile money automation.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
West Africa mobile money. BCEAO. API key. SN/CI. Mobile wallet data.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
An NGO, enterprise, or business in Francophone West Africa wanting AI agents to automate mobile money collection and bulk disbursement through Wave's zero-fee platform which has the highest adoption rates in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Avoid When
BUSINESS API ACCESS REQUIRES WAVE BUSINESS ACCOUNT: Wave Business API requires approved Wave Business account not consumer account; automated merchant access requires Wave business onboarding; automated consumer Wave credentials for API creates unauthorized_business_access. WAVE USER MUST HAVE ACTIVE ACCOUNT: Wave collection from customer requires active Wave wallet on customer's phone; automated payment request to non-Wave user creates user_not_found; automated payment must verify Wave account existence. PAYMENT LINK FLOW REQUIRES CONSUMER APP: Wave payment link requires consumer to open in Wave app; automated checkout must present Wave payment link URL; automated server-side Wave charge without consumer interaction creates no payment mechanism. OPERATING IN MULTIPLE COUNTRIES REQUIRES MULTI-ACCOUNT: Wave Business has separate accounts per country (SN, CI, ML differ); automated multi-country deployment must use country-specific accounts; automated single-account multi-country creates wrong_country_error.
Use Cases
- • Collecting Wave payments for Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire merchant checkout agents
- • Disbursing bulk payments to West Africa Wave wallets from NGO and payroll agents
- • Generating payment links for West Africa invoice payment automation agents
- • Confirming Wave transactions from West Africa fulfillment agents
Not For
- • Non-West Africa markets (Wave is Francophone West Africa + Uganda focused)
- • Non-Wave users (Wave serves Wave subscribers; use MTN MoMo for MTN subscribers)
- • International bank transfers (Wave is mobile wallet for domestic and regional transactions)
Interface
Authentication
Wave uses API key for Business API authentication. REST API with JSON. San Francisco, CA HQ (with Africa operations). Founded 2018 by Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk. Backed by Sequoia, Founders Fund, Stripe ($200M+ raised, $1.7B valuation). Products: Consumer zero-fee mobile money, Wave Business (merchant API), payment links, bulk disbursement. No public SDK. Regulated in Senegal (BCEAO), Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Uganda. 8M+ users. Competes with Orange Money and MTN MoMo in West Africa.
Pricing
San Francisco CA / Africa. Sequoia/Stripe backed. Business API per-transaction pricing. BCEAO regulated.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ PAYMENT LINK REQUIRES CONSUMER WAVE APP: Wave payment links must be opened in consumer's Wave app; automated checkout must present Wave payment link for consumer to tap; automated server-side Wave payment without consumer interaction creates no payment
- ⚠ COLLECTION RESULT VIA WEBHOOK: Wave collection result (payment received/failed) is delivered via webhook; automated fulfillment must await webhook not expect synchronous collection confirmation; automated immediate fulfillment after collection request creates premature processing
- ⚠ COUNTRY ACCOUNTS ARE SEPARATE: Wave Business has separate API accounts and keys per country (SN, CI, etc.); automated multi-country integration must route to country-specific account; automated single global account creates wrong_country error for non-primary country
- ⚠ WAVE USER VERIFICATION BEFORE COLLECTION: Wave collection request requires valid Wave phone number (registered Wave user); automated collection should verify phone is Wave user before initiating; automated collection to non-Wave number creates user_not_found after round-trip delay
- ⚠ IDEMPOTENCY KEY PREVENTS DUPLICATE CHARGES: Wave supports idempotency via X-Wave-Idempotency-Key; automated retry must use same idempotency key; automated new key on retry creates duplicate charge if original succeeded after timeout
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.