How do people in Burundi pay online?
Mobile wallets carry most digital payments. The Banque de la République du Burundi (BRB) lists three electronic money issuers: Lumicash and Sasai Fintech Burundi, both subsidiaries of telecoms companies, and the independent Ellis Business Company, trading as Cashtel. At the end of December 2025 they held 7,872,849 wallets, 2,546,188 of them active. In the fourth quarter of 2025 the wallets made 94,266,462 transactions worth BIF 2,909 billion, up 30.50% in volume and 19.71% in value on a year earlier.
Most wallet activity is still cash in, cash out and airtime. Deposits made up 46.60% of the value of mobile transactions in the quarter, and airtime top-ups 51.78% of their number. Payments for goods and services passed BIF 25.3 billion in the quarter, 5.04% more than in the third, and person-to-person transfers numbered 2,881,235.
Banks are catching up. Eight banks and nine microfinance institutions run digital payment platforms, with 3,018,330 accounts, of which 313,423 were active, and 10,213,711 transactions worth BIF 1,958 billion in the last quarter of 2025. Cards are less common: at the end of 2024, seven banks and two microfinance institutions issued debit cards, and some banks offered Visa cards, according to the BRB’s annual payment systems report.
Connectivity limits reach. Data from the telecoms regulator ARCT, quoted by the BRB, put mobile phone penetration at 71.01% and internet penetration at 29.26% in December 2025.
What rules shape online payments in Burundi?
E-commerce payments have their own circular. BRB Circular No. 008/SP/2026 covers every party that processes payments for e-commerce in Burundi, from banks and payment institutions to payment gateways and merchant websites. Providers need prior approval from the BRB, which keeps a register of approved providers, and must work through fiduciary accounts at a bank, the national postal service or a qualifying microfinance institution. Payment funds are held in that account until delivery of the goods or service is confirmed, for no more than four working days for domestic transactions and 14 calendar days for international ones, unless there is a dispute. Before the customer validates a payment, the checkout must show the total price and all fees, and the customer validates with a secure method such as an OTP, QR code or PIN.
A national instant payment system is starting. Regulation No. 03/2026 sets the rules for BurundiPay, the BRB’s instant retail payment system for payments in Burundian francs. Banks, the national postal service, payment institutions, deposit-taking microfinance institutions and payment aggregators take part, and it supports aliases and QR codes.
VAT is 18%, with a reduced rate of 10% on listed imported food and agricultural goods. The registration threshold is gross turnover of BIF 100 million, and a reverse charge applies to imported services, according to the East African Community’s tax matrix.
Burundi now has a data protection law. Law No. 1/03 of 10 March 2026 on personal data protection is cited in the BRB’s e-commerce circular. DLA Piper’s country summary, which predates it, describes data protection as spread across sector laws, including banking secrecy under Article 133 of Law No. 1/17 of 22 August 2017.
How would Omno route payments in Burundi?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In Burundi:
- Wallet pay-ins would go to a provider approved under the BRB’s e-commerce circular that connects the wallets the merchant offers, with the order pending until the customer validates with their PIN or OTP.
- Bank app payments can sit next to wallets in the hosted checkout, routed to a provider connected to the banks the merchant’s customers use.
- Card pay-ins can be routed by BIN, with cascading: if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts.
- Domestic and international rules can separate local BIF orders from cross-border ones, since escrow periods differ between the two.
Webhooks would carry the final status of each payment, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for approved providers. Only providers approved by the BRB may process e-commerce payments, so each route needs a provider on the BRB register.
Plan for escrow timing. Funds stay in a fiduciary account until delivery is confirmed, for up to four working days locally and 14 calendar days for international payments, which affects cash flow and order status design.
Plan for full price display. The checkout must show the total price and every fee before the customer validates.
Plan for the new data protection law, and check how Law No. 1/03 of 2026 treats customer data held abroad.