pawaPay vs Onafriq: which fits a cross-border payment company?

By Polynopsis team · Last updated 28 October 2026

pawaPay is a mobile money API that runs deposits, payouts, refunds and remittances to wallets in 23 African markets, while Onafriq is a pan-African network that pays out to mobile wallets, bank accounts and cash pickup agents and states 43 African nations in its network. pawaPay publishes its fees (1% plus the operator fee on its Standard plan) and draws payouts from prefunded wallets held per country, while Onafriq offers direct connections to major mobile money schemes under a single contract with settlement in one currency.

Side by side

	pawaPay	Onafriq
What it does	For international money transfer operators, pawaPay sends funds into mobile money wallets in Sub-Saharan Africa through one API and one contract, with markets rolled out one by one, real-time status updates for each payment, and one dashboard for reporting and reconciliation. Conversion into local currency is supported across its markets. source	Onafriq describes itself as a network of networks offering pay-ins by card, cash or mobile wallet, payouts through a single integration, physical and virtual prepaid card issuance, and treasury services. source
Markets covered	pawaPay states 23 live African markets and says it covers 85% of all mobile money in Africa (homepage, October 2026), offering deposit, refund and payout services. Listed markets include Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, DRC and Mozambique. source	Onafriq states 43 African nations in its network, 1 billion connected mobile wallets, 500 million registered bank accounts and 2,000 cross-border payment corridors (homepage, October 2026), with 13 offices. source
Payout and collection methods	Mobile money: pawaPay's v2 provider reference lists operators including MTN, Airtel, M-Pesa, Orange, Wave, Moov, Vodacom, Tigo, Halotel, Zamtel and EcoCash, each with its own provider code and currency. source	Payouts go to bank accounts, mobile money accounts or offline agents for cash pickup, sent through a portal or by API. For remittances, Onafriq offers direct connections to major mobile money schemes under a single contract. source
Licences and regulation	Quidexplus Kenya Limited, a pawaPay group company, is listed in the Central Bank of Kenya's directory of authorised Payment Service Providers, first licensed on 17 June 2026 to provide a platform that processes payments on behalf of merchants. source	Onafriq holds three Bank of Uganda licences: Payment Service Provider (PSP 14/22), Payment Systems Operator for large funds transfer (PSO 20/22) and Issuer of a Payment Instrument, Class A payment cards (IPI 03/22). source
Company (founded, HQ, listed or funding)	Founded in 2020. pawaPay raised a 9 million USD seed round in August 2021, co-led by MSA and 88mph with Vunani Capital, Kepple Ventures and Zagadat Capital. source	Onafriq UK Limited (company 08435446) was incorporated on 7 March 2013 as MFS Africa UK Limited and took the Onafriq name on 31 October 2023. It is active, with its registered office at 51 Eastcheap, London. source
How you hold and fund balances	Payouts need enough funds in the pawaPay wallet, and each wallet is tied to one country and currency. Merchants top up by bank or SWIFT transfer from a company-owned account quoting a unique merchant code, by moving funds from another pawaPay wallet, or through a Liquidity Partner approved by pawaPay Treasury. source	Onafriq's treasury service lets partners accept and make cross-market payments in multiple currencies and receive settlement in a single preferred currency, drawing on multiple FX sourcing partners across the continent to keep local currency available. source
Balance and reporting APIs	GET /v2/wallet-balances returns each wallet's country, balance, currency and provider, and can be filtered by country. source	The Remittance and Bulk Payout API's get_balance method returns the partner's available balance, current balance, any overdraft facility, currency and a UTC timestamp, and Onafriq asks partners to call it no more than once every five minutes. source
Public pricing	Standard plan: 1% plus the mobile money operator fee on collections, payouts, refunds and remittances, with no setup or monthly fees; Enterprise pricing is custom. Published settlement times are T+2 to T+11 business days for local and T+3 to T+12 for cross-border settlement. source	Not published.

Which to shortlist

pawaPay: pawaPay fits if your flows are mobile money payouts and collections, you want published fees, and you want per-country wallet balances you can read by API and top up from your own bank account or an approved liquidity partner.
Onafriq: Onafriq fits if you need payouts to bank accounts and cash pickup as well as mobile wallets, reach across the 43 markets in its network, or settlement in a single currency under one contract.

Running both

Many payment companies use more than one provider per market. Polynopsis reads every partner, bank and wallet into one live position, so each balance, prefund and transfer in flight sits in one place whichever providers you choose.

Frequently asked questions

Do pawaPay and Onafriq both pay out to bank accounts?

Onafriq pays out to bank accounts, mobile money accounts and cash pickup agents. pawaPay's providers are mobile money operators such as MTN, Airtel, M-Pesa, Orange and Wave.

How many African markets does each cover?

pawaPay states 23 live markets. Onafriq states 43 African nations in its network, with 1 billion connected mobile wallets and 500 million registered bank accounts.

Do I need to prefund pawaPay?

Yes. Payouts need enough funds in the pawaPay wallet for that country. You top it up by bank or SWIFT transfer quoting your merchant code, from another pawaPay wallet, or through an approved liquidity partner.

What does pawaPay charge?

On the Standard plan, 1% plus the mobile money operator fee on collections and payouts, with no setup or monthly fees. Enterprise pricing is custom.

Which regulators license them?

pawaPay group company Quidexplus Kenya Limited is authorised as a Payment Service Provider by the Central Bank of Kenya. Onafriq holds PSP, PSO and payment instrument issuer licences from the Bank of Uganda.

Other comparisons

Sources

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