Our investment
Description of the investment.
Description of the investment.
We invested in Wave Mobile Money to support its mission of expanding financial inclusion across Francophone West Africa. Wave offers essential financial services (peer to peer transfers, merchant payments, remittances) that are markedly more affordable and accessible than those offered by incumbent telecom providers. As the region’s only interoperable mobile money platform, Wave enables more open access to these basic financial services, reinforcing its role as a transformative business in the region’s financial ecosystem.
Impact information
Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.
Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.
What?
| Impact |
|---|
Improve financial management of both retail clients and merchants through increased affordability, efficiency and accessibility of payments services (SDG 8.10). |
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How?
| Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|
|
Direct: BII’s loan will support Wave’s working capital needs, enabling it to expand its operations to new markets. By building its own infrastructure, Wave is able to improve the affordability and accessibility of financial services to customers. These financial services include person to person transactions, merchant payments, international remittances, bill pay, and other services. |
Catalysing markets: Wave offers interoperable person to person transactions at a maximum fee of 1% across all its markets, significantly below the costs for cash out initially charged by other providers. Wave’s novel pricing strategy prompted major telecom competitors in the region to reduce their prices. |
Who?
| Stakeholder | Geography | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Customers (Retail and Merchants) |
Our proceeds will be deployed to the following countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and The Gambia. |
This is a mass market product where a large proportion of the population are estimated to be low income. In Côte d’Ivoire, we expect that 47% of customers live on less than $6.85 a day. |
How much?
| Scale | Depth/Duration |
|---|---|
|
As of June 2025, Wave had 20 million monthly active users across its markets, served through a network of 150,000 agents. |
Depth: Through applying competitive pricing pressure to the wider mobile money ecosystem, Wave is improving consumer access to and affordability of mobile money services. Duration: The impact of financial services and economic opportunities are expected to be long-term. |
Contribution/additionality
| Contribution/additionality |
|---|
|
BII’s Contribution is primarily based on financial additionality. The syndicate BII joined is led by Rand Merchant Bank. However, other commercial lenders did not have sufficient risk appetite to complete the syndicate and meet Wave’s funding requirements, especially for entering new challenging markets. Hence, DFI funding was needed to fill the debt raise. |
Risk
Execution RiskAs Wave expands into new markets, the business may face unforeseen challenges in further growing volumes. Alignment RiskThere is a risk Wave’s expansion into high impact geographies may undershoot initial expectations. |
Impact score
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Impact score (at point of investment)
The Impact Score is a tool to help us manage our performance against our strategic impact objectives. It is designed to incentivise investments that support our productive, sustainable, and inclusive objectives. The Impact Score shown is based on the 2022-2026 Impact Score methodology. You can find out more here. The Impact Score is published for investments made from 2022 onwards. The Impact Scores are calculated at the point of investment. We publish the Impact Scores of new investments annually, once the information has been externally assured by an independent third party. |
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Environmental and social information
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Environmental and social summary
A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.
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Environmental and social risk
A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.
Environmental and social summary
The investment is classified as medium-low E&S risk due to Wave's business model, scale of workforce and agent network, and the early stage of its E&S systems. We agreed an ESAP focused on strengthening the company’s environmental and social risk management capacity, including the development of an E&S policy, updating HR policies and procedures, and implementation of an external grievance mechanism.
Environmental and social risk
Medium-Low
Reporting and Complaints Mechanism
The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to [email protected] or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.
For any other general enquiries contact us at [email protected]
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Key facts
- First published
:
When the investment was first published on the website database.
- September 2025
- Last updated
:
When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.
- June 2026
- Project number
:
An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.
- D7208
- Status
:
The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).
- Active
- Region
:
The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.
- West Africa
- Country
:
The countries where the investment delivers impact. Where impact is delivered in multiple countries, this is indicated.
- Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Mali, Senegal
- Sector
:
We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.
- Financial services
- Sub sector
:
The sub-sector that the investment is made into; this provides a more granular level of detail than the ‘sector’ information
- Diversified Financial Services
- Investment policy :
- Growth
- Investment type :
- Debt
- Start date :
- June 2025
- Amount :
- $31.72m
- Currency of investment :
- EUR
- Domicile
:
The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.
- Senegal
We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.
Type of investment portfolio that each investment is made under. Since 2014, we have run two investment portfolios: Catalyst and Growth. In addition, our Kinetic Portfolio enables us to manage concessional investment strategies.
For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.
For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.
For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.
For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.
For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.
For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.
The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.
For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.
The currency in which the investment was made.
- First published
