Mali: Wave Mobile Money claims decisions made "on the ground, not in offices"

Mali has been hosting its Digital Week for several years, an event designed to structure the national digital ecosystem. The 4th edition provided the setting for an interview between Mah Bintou Coulibaly, Director of Wave Mobile Money Mali, and Financial Afrik, as the company, present in the country since 2021, seeks to consolidate its position in the mobile payments market. According to Mah Bintou Coulibaly, quoted by Financial Afrik, "decisions come from the field and not from offices" at Wave Mali, a phrase meant to summarize the company's operating model since its establishment. The executive reflects on what Financial Afrik describes as the "meteoric rise" of the operator with the little blue penguin logo, and reviews Wave's participation in this digital week. Wave affirms its desire to "support digital development" in Mali. For users, an approach claimed to be "field-based" has concrete implications for financial inclusion, particularly outside banked areas. For the Malian ecosystem, Wave's presence at this institutional event reflects a desire for local roots. This rhetoric of proximity, classic for fintechs facing historical telecom operators, nevertheless deserves to be confirmed by numerical data (active agents, geographical coverage, market share) absent from the available excerpt.