PI-SPI, One Year On: 175 Doors, and a Ceiling at 8,000 Francs
The 30 September deadline for banks, e-money issuers and payment institutions passed without another extension. The BCEAO published 175 participants authorised to open PI-SPI to the public, made the platform mandatory for interoperable e-money from 2 November, and turned 2025's "free" into a ceiling. What it published, what it still does not, and where I was wrong.
One Currency. Eight Markets.
The WAEMU zone shares one currency, one central bank and one business law. If common rules made a single market, this would be it. Four readings show otherwise: one rulebook, eight different grounds.
Twenty-Four Names. Sixteen Companies.
The BCEAO published the list of Business APIs cleared for its instant payment rail. Twenty-four lines, eight countries. Count companies instead of lines and sixteen remain — with one name holding a third of them. The deadline falls in ten days.
Yes, You Can Take Your Money Out. That Is Not the Question.
The regulation many still quote on repatriating capital from the WAEMU zone was repealed in December 2024. Here is the one that applies, what it actually permits, what it forbids your intra-group structures, and why your bank will still ask for a file.
The Cheque Isn't Slow. It's a Witness.
The BCEAO built an instant payment rail that moves money in seconds across eight countries. In the same year, cheques carried 71.7% of the value in the region's retail clearing system — on 24.6% of the transactions. That gap isn't a technology problem.
WAEMU Just Built a Backstop and Set a Belt-Tightening Path. Read What That Tells You About Who Pays for Growth.
On 3 July 2026 WAEMU finance ministers operationalized the Union's Financial Stability Fund and set a fiscal-consolidation path — deficit down to 2.9% of GDP by 2027. A bloc building a safety net while tightening the public purse is telling you who is expected to pay for growth. What it means for a firm entering.
WAEMU Just Raised a Record 7,870bn FCFA — and 80% of It Only Rolls Over Old Debt
WAEMU states raised a record 7,870 billion FCFA on the regional securities market in H1 2026 — but redemptions of 6,245 billion mean net new money was barely 1,625 billion. What a refinancing-driven record actually means for a firm counting on local capital to enter Francophone Africa.
Interoperability: Friction or Fiction?
The BCEAO says WAEMU has one interoperable instant-payment rail. Five days before it became mandatory, the deadline slipped to September — while users still can't pay. A terrain read on the gap between the announcement and the ground.
The Frontier Everyone Can See and No One Can Measure
WAEMU's informal economy runs to ~92% of employment — bigger than Nigeria's and less measured. Why the market you can't count is the one that decides, and what it means for deploying capital in Francophone Africa.
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