Mobile money transfers

You can transfer money directly from your available balance to a mobile money account.

Hey👋. We recommend checking out Transfers: Overview to understand the basics of transfers first. This guide assumes you've read that.

Mobile money transfers work the same as regular bank account transfers. The key difference is that the account_number is the mobile number on the account (including the country code, like "233"), while the account_bank is a code representing the mobile money operator (for example, "MPS" for M-Pesa). A beneficiary_name is also required, so we can identify this account in your list of beneficiaries.

Mobile Money Kenya (M-Pesa) requires you to include the senders fullname as sender sender's country as sender_country and the senders mobile number as mobile_number in the meta object. See Initiate a Transfer for specification

Supported mobile money operators

Here's a list of the current supported countries/currencies and options for mobile money:

Countries/currencies	Mobile money options
Rwanda (RWF) Tanzania (TZS) Uganda (UGX) Zambia (ZMW)	`MPS`
Kenya (KES)	M-Pesa (`MPS`) Airtel Kenya (`MPX`)
Ghana (GHS)	`MTN` `TIGO` `VODAFONE` `AIRTEL`
Cameroon (XAF) Cote d'Ivoire (XOF)	`FMM`
Senegal (XOF)	`ORANGEMONEY` `EMONEY` `FREEMONEY`
Ethiopia (ETB)	AMOLEMONEY
Malawi (MWK)	AIRTELMW

Here's an example of a mobile money transfer:

const details = {
  account_bank: "MPS",
  account_number: "2540782773934",
  amount: 1200,
  currency: "KES",
  beneficiary_name: "Akinyi Kimwei",
  meta: {
    "sender": "Flutterwave Developers",
    "sender_country": "ZA",
    "mobile_number": "23457558595"
  }
};
await flw.Transfer.initiate(details)

$details = array(
  "account_bank" => "MPS",
  "account_number" => "2540782773934",
  "amount" => 1200,
  "currency" => "KES",
  "beneficiary_name" => "Akinyi Kimwei",
  "meta" => array(
    "sender": "Flutterwave Developers",
    "sender_country": "ZA",
    "mobile_number": "23457558595"
  )
);
$response = $transferService->singleTransfer($details);

details = {
  account_bank: "MPS",
  account_number: "2540782773934",
  amount: 1200,
  currency: "KES",
  beneficiary_name: "Akinyi Kimwei",
  meta: {
    "sender": "Flutterwave Developers",
    "sender_country": "ZA",
    "mobile_number": "23457558595"
  }
}
response = transfer.initiate_transfer details

details = {
  "account_bank": "MPS",
  "account_number": "2540782773934",
  "amount": 1200,
  "currency": "KES",
  "beneficiary_name": "Akinyi Kimwei",
  "meta": {
    "sender": "Flutterwave Developers",
    "sender_country": "ZA",
    "mobile_number": "23457558595"
  }
}
res = rave.Transfer.initate(details)

details := rave.SinglePaymentData {
    AccountBank:     "flutterwave",
    AccountNumber:   "00118468",
    Amount:          1200,
    Currency:        "KES",
    BeneficiaryName: "Akinyi Kimwei"
}
err, response := transfer.InitiateSingleTransfer(details)

curl --request POST 'https://api.flutterwave.com/v3/transfers' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_KEY' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{
    account_bank: "MPS",
    account_number: "2540782773934",
    amount: 1200,
    currency: "KES",
    beneficiary_name: "Akinyi Kimwei",
    meta: {
      "sender": "Flutterwave Developers",
      "sender_country": "ZA",
      "mobile_number": "23457558595"
    }
}'

Here's an example response:

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 127886,
        "account_number": "2540782773934",
        "bank_code": "MPS",
        "full_name": "Flutterwave Developers",
        "created_at": "2020-06-25T14:03:51.000Z",
        "currency": "KES",
        "amount": 50,
        "fee": 45,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "mk-902837-jk",
        "meta": null,
        "narration": "New transfer",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "FA-BANK"
    }
}

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 127890,
        "account_number": "250780411008",
        "bank_code": "FMM",
        "full_name": "Flutterwave Developers",
        "created_at": "2020-06-25T14:11:45.000Z",
        "currency": "XAF",
        "amount": 50,
        "fee": 500,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "new-franco-momo-test-transfer",
        "meta": null,
        "narration": "New franco transfer",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "FA-BANK"
    }
}

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 217647,
        "account_number": "2217857532",
        "bank_code": "FREEMONEY",
        "full_name": "Taju Afobaje",
        "created_at": "2023-06-23T12:32:32.000Z",
        "currency": "XOF",
        "debit_currency": "XOF",
        "amount": 100,
        "fee": 2,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "TRF-21928319023-231202",
        "meta": [
            {
                "Sender": "Agba Tester",
                "SenderCountry": "NG",
                "SenderAddress": "Lagos",
                "SenderMobileNumber": "+2348100001201"
            }
        ],
        "narration": "MoMo Transfer to Senegal",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "FA-BANK"
    }
}

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 127889,
        "account_number": "233542773934",
        "bank_code": "MTN",
        "full_name": "Flutterwave Developers",
        "created_at": "2020-06-25T14:09:42.000Z",
        "currency": "RWF",
        "amount": 50,
        "fee": 45,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "new-rwf-momo-transfer",
        "meta": null,
        "narration": "New RWF momo transfer",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "FA-BANK"
    }
}

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 127894,
        "account_number": "233542773934",
        "bank_code": "MPS",
        "full_name": "Flutterwave Developers",
        "created_at": "2020-06-25T14:39:16.000Z",
        "currency": "UGX",
        "amount": 50,
        "fee": 500,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "ugx-momo-transfer",
        "meta": null,
        "narration": "UGX momo transfer",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "FA-BANK"
    }
}

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 222401,
        "account_number": "26586644477755",
        "bank_code": "AIRTELMW",
        "full_name": "Dora Explorer",
        "created_at": "2024-02-06T16:27:14.000Z",
        "currency": "MWK",
        "debit_currency": "NGN",
        "amount": 100000,
        "fee": 350003.5,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "9dc2de49014ad188",
        "meta": null,
        "narration": "ecobank mw test",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "Airtel Malawi"
    }
}

{
    "status": "success",
    "message": "Transfer Queued Successfully",
    "data": {
        "id": 8773850,
        "account_number": "250780411008",
        "bank_code": "MPS",
        "full_name": "Flutterwave Developers",
        "created_at": "2021-05-14T16:01:31.000Z",
        "currency": "ZMW",
        "amount": 50,
        "fee": 1.5,
        "status": "NEW",
        "reference": "new-ZMW-momo-test-transfer",
        "meta": null,
        "narration": "New ZMW transfer",
        "complete_message": "",
        "requires_approval": 0,
        "is_approved": 1,
        "bank_name": "Mobile Money"
    }
}

{}

Supported formats

To make a successful M-Pesa(KES), XAF, or XOF transfer request, Pass amount and account_number in the following formats:

We only support integers for amount.
account_number is expected to take these forms: 254700000000 or 0700000000.

As always, you'll notice that the data.status of the transfer is "NEW". Remember to set up a webhook or call the get transfer endpoint to find out when the transfer is completed. See Transfers: Overview for details.

Bulk transfers

You can also transfer to multiple mobile money accounts at once. See the bulk transfers guide for details.

Making Payments

Mobile money transfers

Supported mobile money operators

Bulk transfers