WayaMe
Building the payment platform Ghanaian merchants actually needed
The challenge
Most small and medium merchants in Ghana who wanted to accept digital payments were stuck choosing between separate integrations for mobile money, card, and bank transfer, each with its own setup process and its own dashboard.
Checkout pages were almost always English-only, which quietly excluded customers who don't read English confidently. And there was no simple, trustworthy way for a merchant to send an invoice, or collect money from a group, without exporting numbers into a spreadsheet by hand.
We didn't want to build another payment gateway aimed at developers. We wanted something a shop owner could set up herself, in minutes, on her phone.
Our approach
We used the same four-step process we now use with every client: discover, design, build, support. In this case, the client was ourselves, and the operations we studied were the ones we'd watched real Ghanaian merchants struggle with directly.
We started with the checkout experience, since that's the part a customer actually touches. Then we built the merchant-facing tools (dashboard, invoicing, fundraising links) around the same underlying payment infrastructure, so a merchant only has to learn one system.
What we built
Unified checkout
One payment link accepts mobile money, card, and bank transfer, so the merchant doesn't have to choose or integrate each separately.
Multi-language checkout
The checkout experience works in Twi, Ga, and English, not just English, so more customers can confidently complete a payment.
Verified-merchant trust
KYC-backed verification badges give customers a visible signal that the business on the other end is real.
Merchant dashboard
Payments, customers, and settlement in one place, instead of piecing it together from SMS alerts.
Invoicing
A merchant can send a proper invoice, let the customer pay it online, and know the moment it's settled.
Fundraising & collections
Reusable payment links with a running total, built for causes, groups, and recurring collections.
Where it stands
WayaMe is live today, processing real payments for real merchants in Accra. It's not a case study about a client we advised from the outside. It's the product we run our own company's payment infrastructure knowledge on.
Every financial technology engagement we take on for another organization draws on the same decisions we had to make building WayaMe: how to handle mobile money as the default payment method, how to make trust visible at checkout, and how to keep a merchant dashboard simple enough that nobody needs a manual.
Working on something similar?
Tell us what you’re working with and we’ll tell you honestly how we’d approach it.