Fintech unicorn Wave has appointed Joël Bertrand Ndjodo, a former executive at telecom giant MTN, as its country manager for Cameroon, signalling a serious push into one of Central Africa’s most dynamic mobile money markets.
Ndjodo, who spent 11 years as a senior mobile money manager for MTN in the country, brings over two decades of experience in digital financial services. His appointment coincides with Wave’s official, long-awaited launch in Cameroon through a partnership with the local Commercial Bank Cameroun (CBC).
The move pits the disruptive, low-cost model of Wave against the market’s entrenched leaders, MTN and Orange, and comes as a host of international fintechs, including Flutterwave and Cauri Money, are also vying for a piece of the Cameroonian market.
The competitive tremors are already being felt. Orange Cameroon, the market’s dominant player, has preemptively slashed its mobile money withdrawal fees to 1% from 1.5% via its Max it app. This follows a previous reduction from 2% in 2022.
“We want to make life easier for Cameroonians through accessible and increasingly affordable solutions,” Orange Cameroon said recently in a statement.
The move is a clear defensive strategy against Wave’s signature pricing, which typically includes a flat 1% fee for transfers and free cash withdrawals — a model that has forced competitors in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire to drastically lower their own prices.
Wave will not issue e-money directly, a tightly regulated activity in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) region. Instead, it will leverage CBC’s licence, which was authorised by the regional banking commission COBAC in June 2025, to offer services including deposits, withdrawals, peer-to-peer transfers, and bill payments.
The expansion is backed by significant capital. Wave recently secured a €117m debt facility led by Rand Merchant Bank, with participation from development finance institutions like Norfund, Finnfund, and British International Investment, to fuel its growth across its eight African markets.
A Market Primed for Disruption
The interest from international players is unsurprising. Between 2019 and 2023, the value of mobile money transactions in Cameroon surged by 162% to reach 24.3 trillion CFA francs (€37bn), according to official figures. The number of active accounts grew 144% to over 24 million in the same period.
Cameroon now accounts for over 70% of all mobile money activity in the six-nation CEMAC bloc, which the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) reported processed over €90bn in transactions in 2022.
However, the operating environment comes with significant hurdles. A 0.2% tax is levied on all mobile money transactions, a cost that operators must factor into increasingly thin margins.
There is also the cautionary tale of YUP, Société Générale’s mobile money venture, which shut down in 2022. Despite its institutional backing, YUP failed to gain traction against the deeply embedded incumbents, peaking at just 22,000 active users compared to Orange’s 10 million at the time.
For Wave, hiring a local veteran like Ndjodo is a strategic first step. His challenge will be to navigate the complex regulatory landscape and adapt Wave’s successful West African playbook to unseat powerful rivals in a market where brand loyalty and vast agent networks are critical. The fee wars may be starting, but in Cameroon, disruption doesn’t come cheap.
