How do people in Equatorial Guinea pay online?
Banks and cards carry electronic payments, not wallets. The BEAC, the central bank of the six CEMAC countries, counted 50,224 mobile money accounts in Equatorial Guinea at the end of 2024, which made 1,161,209 transactions worth XAF 10.9 billion during the year. That is the smallest wallet market in the region by far; the Central African Republic, the next smallest, had 559,620 accounts.
Card use is growing quickly from a low base. Equatorial Guinea had 40,613 active cards and 93 card terminals in 2024. Card payments at merchants reached 89,103, worth XAF 9.75 billion, against 4,925 payments worth XAF 452.5 million in 2022, according to the BEAC’s 2022 report. Card holders made 983,714 cash machine withdrawals worth XAF 100.8 billion in 2024, so cash is still the main use of a card.
Transfers move most of the value. Banks handled 548,963 transfers in 2024, slightly fewer than the year before. Across all instruments, Equatorial Guinea made up 0.41% of CEMAC payment transactions but 3.93% of their value, which points to a market of fewer, larger payments. The BEAC’s 2022 report counted five banks in the country with 310,837 accounts.
Cards in the region run on Visa, GIMAC, UnionPay and Mastercard. Visa is the largest network across the CEMAC with 1,465,905 cards, ahead of GIMAC, the regional interbank card group, with 1,001,715. None of the CEMAC’s licensed payment institutions listed by Ecofin, citing the BEAC’s 2025 to 2029 financial inclusion strategy, was in Equatorial Guinea in July 2023.
What rules shape online payments in Equatorial Guinea?
VAT is 15%. A reduced rate of 5% applies to a short list of basic consumables and books, and 0% to listed medical products and equipment. All operations performed in Equatorial Guinea are subject to VAT unless the tax code exempts them, according to PwC.
Customer data needs informed consent. Personal Data Protection Law No. 1/2016 of 22 July 2016 requires that people be told, clearly and in advance, why their data is collected, who will receive it and who is responsible for processing it. Data files are registered with the General Data Protection Registry. Processing data on health, political views, religion or ethnic origin without the express authorisation of the person is treated as a major infringement.
CEMAC payment rules apply. The payment services regulation of 21 December 2018 sets the conditions under which payment service providers operate in the region. CEMAC Regulation No. 03/16/CEMAC/UMAC/CM requires a non-cash means of payment for any transaction above XAF 500,000, and BEAC Instruction No. 001/GR/2024 sets technical standards for electronic payment instruments, including authentication.
Cross-border settlement goes through banks. Under the CEMAC foreign exchange regulation, No. 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, settlements with other countries are made only through credit institutions (Article 30), and transactions between two residents cannot be settled through bank accounts held abroad.
How would Omno route payments in Equatorial Guinea?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In Equatorial Guinea:
- Card pay-ins would be the main route, sent by BIN to providers that accept Visa, Mastercard and, where supported, GIMAC cards, with cascading to the next provider in the rule if one is unavailable or rejects the request.
- Google Pay can sit in the hosted checkout for shoppers with a card saved to their Google account.
- Bank-based payments can be added through a provider that supports transfers in XAF, with the order pending until the provider confirms receipt.
- Amount and customer group rules can keep large orders on the methods and providers the merchant chooses.
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 cards first. Wallets are not yet a mass channel here, unlike in Cameroon or the Congo, so a card form with clear authentication matters most.
Plan for fewer, larger payments. Equatorial Guinea’s share of CEMAC payment value is nearly ten times its share of transactions, so amount rules and limits deserve attention.
Plan for VAT at 15% and for consent notices that meet Law No. 1/2016.
Plan for bank settlement. Payouts to accounts outside the CEMAC follow the regional exchange regulation and go through credit institutions.