Bank of Botswana Regulatory Sandbox — Eligibility Assessment Stage
Gaborone · Botswana · +267 723 06377
Flagship Product · Live in Sandbox

The switch between every wallet, bank and merchant in Botswana.

IPA — the Interoperable Payments API — is a real-time switching platform that connects six independently owned payment service providers through a single REST integration. One API to reach MyZaka, Orange Money, BancABC, Stanbic, FNB and Absa. Built for the regulator to supervise from the first transaction.

Request technical briefing → See the architecture ↓
6PSPs
Banks & mobile money, one integration
3types
P2P · P2M · B2P transaction flows
8rules
Composite AML detection engine
*177#
USSD access for feature phones
How IPA Works · 01

One request. Four hops. Seconds.

A transaction enters IPA from any channel — app, web, or USSD — and is routed, screened, switched and settled across provider boundaries in real time. The sender and receiver never need to be on the same provider.

Initiate
A customer sends money via app, web, or USSD *177#. The request hits the IPA API with sender, recipient and amount.
Screen
The AML engine scores the transaction against 8 composite rules — sanctions, velocity, structuring, behaviour — before it proceeds.
Switch
IPA routes the transaction to the recipient's provider, translating between each PSP's interface behind one consistent API.
Settle
Funds are credited to the recipient and the transaction is logged immutably — visible to the regulator's dashboard in real time.
Transaction Types · 02

Three flows. One rail.

IPA carries the three payment flows that matter for a national economy — retail transfers between people, payments to merchants, and bulk disbursements from corporates — over a single piece of infrastructure.

P2P
Retail Transfers
Person-to-person, wallet-to-wallet, wallet-to-bank, bank-to-wallet. Across all six providers, in seconds.
  • Any provider to any provider
  • From BWP 1 to BWP 500,000
  • Real-time settlement
P2M
Merchant Payments
Customers pay merchants regardless of which PSP either side holds. Integrate once; accept everyone.
  • One merchant integration
  • Accept every wallet & bank
  • QR, USSD, and API checkout
B2P
Bulk Disbursements
Corporate payroll, supplier payments, and grants — one file, every recipient credited to their preferred account.
  • One file, six destinations
  • Banked or unbanked recipients
  • Built-in reconciliation
Architecture · 03

Engineered to be observed.

IPA is built on a modern, auditable stack hosted entirely within Southern Africa, integrating directly with each mobile network operator and bank — no third-party aggregator sits in the payment path. Every layer is provisioned as code, every transaction is logged immutably, and the supervisor has a real-time window into the entire system.

API Layer
FastAPI · Python — REST, JSON, OpenAPI documented
Datastore
PostgreSQL 16 — ACID transactions, immutable logs
Cache & Queue
Redis — low-latency routing & rate control
Cloud
AWS af-south-1 — Cape Town, data stays in-region
MNO Rails
Direct integration — Mascom, Orange & BTC, no aggregator
USSD Channel
*177# — provisioned directly with each MNO
Infrastructure
Terraform — reproducible, auditable IaC
Channels App · Web · USSD *177#
↓
IPA REST API FastAPI
↓
AML Engine 8 rules
↓
Switching Core routing & settlement
↓
Direct PSP Rails MNOs & banks · no aggregator
↓
Regulator Dashboard real-time
Compliance & Supervision · 04

Compliance is in the engine, not the appendix.

Most payment systems treat compliance as a reporting layer bolted on after the fact. IPA inverts that: detection, audit and supervision are first-class engineering concerns, running in the transaction path itself.

01 / AML
8 Composite Rules
Every transaction is scored in real time against velocity thresholds, structuring patterns, sanctions screening and behavioural anomaly detection — before it settles.
02 / VISIBILITY
Regulator Dashboard
The Bank of Botswana has a real-time supervisory view of transaction flows, participant activity, system health and alert queues — without having to request data.
03 / AUDIT
Immutable Logs
Every API call, settlement event and rule trigger is recorded immutably, with retention policies aligned to NPS Act and AML/CFT obligations.
04 / RESIDENCY
Data Stays Local
All processing and storage runs in AWS af-south-1 (Cape Town). Personal data and transaction records never leave Southern Africa.
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Want the technical detail?

We share API documentation, integration guides, and the full compliance architecture under NDA with prospective PSP partners, regulators, and corporate clients. Book a technical briefing with the team.

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