Better than cash — Wave is a serious player who changed the industry
This partnership isn't merely about adding another payment option to our roster. What we are building here with Wave represents a deeper technical and strategic alliance that addresses fundamental challenges merchants face when processing mobile money transactions on online stores.
For merchants operating across the UEMOA, this integration delivers immediate, tangible benefits:
Instant settlement times: Wave payments take milliseconds, and that's one of the reasons why it is one of the most popular payment method in Africa.
Dramatically reduced transaction costs: Up to 50% lower fees compared to traditional mobile money processing channels.
Enhanced reliability: Leveraging Wave's proven payment infrastructure alongside our modern stack to ensure 99% uptime, even during peak transaction periods.
Seamless cross-border capabilities: Supporting transactions across all UEMOA member states and beyond.
Definitely not just another payment channel
Wave has revolutionized what an e-wallet solution can achieve in a region historically challenged by financial inclusion barriers.
Their innovative approach to combine remarkably low fees with top-tier distribution channels (the company counts thousands of accessible pop-up stores across major urban centers like Abidjan and Dakar) — has propelled them to become the dominant payment method in West Africa, forcing competitors to recalibrate their pricing and invest heavily to remain competitive.
Partnering with Wave has been our ambition since our inception, and we're thrilled to announce this significant milestone in our journey.
In West Africa, mobile money transcends being merely another payment option, it represents the fundamental financial infrastructure for millions. A recent GSMA analysis reports that mobile money has boosted the region's GDP by over $150 billion (3.7%) between 2013 and 2022, underscoring its transformative economic impact. As a fintech unicorn valued at more than $2 billion today, Wave leads this revolution by handling a substantial portion of the region's mobile transactions.
Open source as a catalyst, not just a feature
Our enhanced integration with Wave's addresses a critical market gap: the absence of transparent, highly sophisticated developer tools specifically designed for large-scale mobile money processing.
We're happy to say that this partnership creates mutual value — extending Wave's reach to online merchants while providing our users with seamless access to the region's most popular payment method.
Our open-source approach has been instrumental in accelerating this partnership. Our transparent codebase allowed Wave's engineering and security teams to thoroughly review our payment handling processes, conducting comprehensive audits of our infrastructure and data flow patterns. This level of visibility established a foundation of trust that proprietary, closed-source systems simply cannot match, significantly reducing the typical enterprise partnership timeline.
What does it mean for our beloved merchants?
For existing lomi. merchants, Wave is now available instantly via the dashboard. Newcomers can enable this payment method by signing up and following our comprehensive integration guide.
The key features of this partnership include:
One-click checkout: End-customers can complete purchases with a single approval on their Wave mobile app or via QR code scanning when purchasing on desktop.
Programmatic refunds: Automatically process partial or full refunds directly to customer Wave wallets via our dashboard or API.
Subscription support: Create and manage recurring billing through our system, enabling subscribers to maintain subscription services using Wave as their preferred payment method.
Enhanced fraud detection: Leveraging both our security systems and Wave's proprietary risk models to provide multi-layered transaction protection.
Beyond payments, building to empower innovation
This collaboration is about creating an infrastructure that empowers entrepreneurs to innovate without limitations and to capitalize on the region's growing markets.
By combining Wave's massive consumer reach with our open architecture, we're enabling ventures to build localised payment experiences that reflect the unique needs of their customers. As we continue to execute on our vision of becoming the foundational e-commerce and payment infrastructure for West Africa by 2030, strategic partnerships like this one will remain central to our approach. Stay tuned!
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lomi. is a payment processing platform based in Côte d'Ivoire. We create and commercialise e-commerce products with built-in payment channels aggregation capabilities, facilitating digital payments and disbursements for merchants and businesses of all sizes. To learn more about what drives our product roadmap, read our blog, visit our GitHub, download our merchant mobile app, or simply create an account.