• Konoom gains Chad's first local payment institution license
• License allows mobile payments, not deposits or credit
• Move boosts competition, supports digital finance expansion in Chad

Konoom Mobile Money, a digital financial services provider co-founded by Abakar Mahamat Adoum Fortey and Brahim Moussa Hassane, has secured a payment institution license in Chad. The license, announced on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, was granted jointly by the Finance Ministry and the Central African Banking Commission (COBAC).

Konoom is the first fully Chadian-owned company to obtain such a license. Previously, Airtel Commerce Mobile Tchad received authorization in 2023 to offer similar services, though in partnership with a foreign telecom operator.

Konoom’s authorized services include mobile money transfers and withdrawals, payment of taxes and duties, retail purchases, phone recharges, and customer payment collection. As a licensed payment institution, the company cannot collect deposits or grant credit, activities reserved for banks. Konoom’s operations are governed by CEMAC Regulation No. 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC of Dec. 21, 2018, which regulates payment services across the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), including Chad.

The regulation permits non-bank operators, including financial institutions, to provide payment services such as issuing and managing electronic money, processing transfers, and handling digital payments.

As of July 2023, six institutions had obtained a payment institution license across the CEMAC region: two in Cameroon, one in Chad, two in Congo, and one in Gabon, according to the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) 2025-2029 Regional Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in December 2023. These licenses were mainly granted to subsidiaries of mobile operators, including Orange Money Cameroun, Airtel Money Gabon, and Mobile Money Congo.

Konoom’s entry diversifies the market and broadens competition. For Chad, its licensing as a payment institution is expected to spur development by advancing the digitalization of public, private, and commercial payments. The first payment institutions in the CEMAC zone were approved in late 2022, with five in total at that time, according to the BEAC’s 2022 report on payment services in CEMAC.

Chamberline Moko