• The BCEAO granted Semoa a level-3 “full service” payment institution license on January 27, 2026, the first such approval in Togo.

• Semoa processed more than 4 million transactions worth over €161 million since 2016, serving more than 552,000 beneficiaries.

• The license allows Semoa to offer all payment services, including money transfers and cross-border transactions.

Semoa Group, which specializes in digital solutions, reached a major milestone in Togo’s entrepreneurial ecosystem after the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) granted the company a level-3 accreditation. The approval marks a first in Togo and coincides with the startup’s tenth year of operations. Semoa’s top management, including Chief Executive Officer Edem Adjamagbo and board administrator Eudes Gbessi, announced the development during a meeting at the company’s headquarters in Lomé on Friday, January 30, 2026.

10 years: facts and figures

Engineer Edem Adjamagbo founded Semoa in 2016 as Togo experienced a surge in entrepreneurship. The company positioned itself in fintech, focusing on digital payments and cash digitization. Two years later, the Lomé-based entrepreneur expanded beyond national borders and won two major awards in Casablanca, including “Startup of the Year 2018.”

In Togo, Semoa expanded its range of activities and signed partnerships with more than 330 public and private institutions. The company also partnered with more than 20 financial institutions, including Ecobank, Orabank, and Cofina. Meanwhile, Adjamagbo pursued regional expansion beyond Togo.

Semoa subsequently launched four subsidiaries in Benin, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal, which reinforced the Togolese entrepreneur’s pan-African ambitions.

The company offers products such as WhatsApp Banking and Semoa Pro, a payment switch that facilitates interoperability for single and bulk payments. Semoa also operates Cashpay, a multimodal platform that centralizes payment methods such as credit cards, mobile money, and wallets for online and point-of-sale payments. In addition, the company runs a Voucher Management System that generates standardized, tamper-proof, and fully secured tickets, tax stamps, and codes.

Since 2016, Semoa processed more than 4 million transactions, served more than 552,000 beneficiaries, and handled more than €161 million in payment flows.

Semoa initially developed digital cards, then electronic payment solutions, before introducing WhatsApp banking, Chief Executive Officer Edem Adjamagbo said.

In Togo, WhatsApp banking allowed about 300,000 users to conduct banking transactions without visiting a physical branch. Adjamagbo said innovation impact on populations remained central to Semoa Group’s ten-year performance.

A full-service BCEAO payment institution license

The Africa-focused company strengthened its regulatory and compliance position after securing a BCEAO payment institution license on January 27, 2026. The level-3 approval, which represents a first in Togo, followed years of sustained efforts and enables Semoa to offer the full range of payment services, including money transfers.

“This represents a full PSP (Payment Service Provider) agreement, the most comprehensive license for a payment institution. It allows us in Togo to do ten times, even one hundred times more than what we did until now,” Edem Adjamagbo said.

Adjamagbo said Semoa had voluntarily limited certain activities for compliance reasons. He added that the company can now legally operate cross-border transfer services and all other segments of digital finance. He said Semoa ultimately aims to become a leading African player in payments and payment services.

S.A