ABA Editorial · Mar 5, 2026 · 3 min read
Cote d'Ivoire-based B2B payment platform Julaya has received an electronic money institution license from the Central Bank of West African States, becoming one of the first private-sector operators to complete the BCEAO licensing process under the updated framework.
Julaya, the Cote d'Ivoire-based B2B payment platform, has received an electronic money institution (EMI) license from the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), becoming one of the first private-sector operators to complete the licensing process under the updated BCEAO framework for electronic money institutions. The license allows Julaya to issue electronic money directly rather than depending on bank partners to do so on its behalf.
BCEAO supervises the monetary system of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) covering Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Guinea-Bissau. A single BCEAO electronic money institution license potentially gives operators market access to approximately 140 million people across the eight WAEMU countries under one regulatory regime, which is a structural advantage unavailable in most of the rest of Africa.
Julaya focuses on B2B payment operations, including payroll disbursements, supplier payments, expense management, and treasury workflows for businesses operating in the WAEMU region. The company's target customers include small and medium enterprises, larger corporates with operations across multiple WAEMU countries, and multinational organizations that use Julaya for specific treasury use cases. The company integrates with Orange Money, MTN Mobile Money, Wave, local banks, and cross-border corridors within the BCEAO region.
BCEAO has progressively updated its framework for electronic money institutions and payment institutions over the last several years, creating clearer licensing paths for fintech operators. Julaya's license follows a lengthy application process that typically requires detailed business plans, governance structures with named senior officers, risk management frameworks, anti-money-laundering programs, technology architecture documentation, customer protection frameworks, and substantive local presence in the WAEMU zone. Documentation is prepared in French.
Industry observers note that the Julaya license is part of a broader pattern of WAEMU fintech operators formalizing their regulatory standing under the updated BCEAO framework. Julaya joins Wave, which holds an EMI license under BCEAO supervision, and Flutterwave, which received a Payment Institution license in Senegal in July 2025. Chari in Morocco obtained a Payment Institution license from Bank Al-Maghrib in October 2025, although Morocco operates under a different regulatory regime from BCEAO.
The regulatory milestone positions Julaya to offer a broader range of financial services to its business customers and provides a structural competitive moat against new entrants who would need to replicate the licensing process to operate in the same regulatory space. For sophisticated business customers including multinational corporations with WAEMU subsidiaries, working with a BCEAO-licensed operator provides the compliance documentation that unlicensed operators cannot match.