“Can a regional West African interbank payment scheme evolve into a full-stack digital financial infrastructure layer for WAEMU's 130+ million population by layering global partnerships onto its domestic switching monopoly?”
GIM-UEMOA was established in 2003 as the regional interbank payment scheme for the eight WAEMU member states, with a mandate to modernize payment infrastructure and promote financial inclusion. Over two decades it has grown into the backbone of interoperable electronic transactions across West Africa, operating the GIM-Switch platform that connects banks, ATMs, POS terminals, and e-commerce nodes region-wide. Recent years have seen strategic external partnerships—with Mastercard and Backbase—to layer in global payment capabilities and modern digital banking infrastructure on top of its core switching network.