This initiative is part of the Comoros Central Bank’s drive to promote financial inclusion and modernize the national financial system. By supporting the emergence of innovative models, the Central Bank is affirming its leading role in expanding access to formal financial services throughout the country.
AXIAN has secured a Decentralized Digital Financial Institution (DFI) license from the Central Bank of Comoros , enabling the creation of a newly established regulated entity operating under a prudential supervisory framework.
This milestone represents a significant step in AXIAN’s Digibank & Fintech strategy and forms part of the Group’s broader Pan-African ambition to design and scale secure, interoperable and universally accessible digital financial solutions. Across its markets, AXIAN is committed to empowering individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses by strengthening access to formal financial services that support life journeys and economic growth. While AXIAN has an established presence in mobile financial services through MVola, the newly licensed institution operates as a distinct regulated entity under the supervision of the Central Bank of Comoros. It will comply fully with all applicable prudential, governance and regulatory requirements, complementing the existing financial system and reinforcing the country’s financial infrastructure.
This initiative is part of the Comoros Central Bank’s drive to promote financial inclusion and modernize the national financial system. By supporting the emergence of innovative models, the Central Bank is affirming its leading role in expanding access to formal financial services throughout the country.
Immediate access to essential financial services
From launch, the institution will introduce core digital credit solutions, including nano- and micro-loans, accessible directly via mobile phones. Built on a fully digital and branchless model, these services are designed to enable near-instant credit decisioning and disbursement, supporting everyday needs such as working capital, healthcare, education and informal economic activity, regardless of geographic location. Additional products will be introduced progressively under a measured development roadmap, ensuring responsible growth aligned with customer needs and regulatory standards.
A structuring step for financial inclusion
The license strengthens AXIAN’s ability to combine mobile distribution capabilities with regulated financial activities within a single compliant framework. By leveraging the reach of MVola and the Group’s broader digital ecosystem, AXIAN can extend access to formal financial services beyond the physical footprint of traditional banking and microfinance networks.
In a market where branch density remains limited, digital delivery reduces barriers related to distance, cost and administrative complexity. By integrating payments, transactional data and regulated financial services, AXIAN contributes to household resilience, supports small-scale economic activity, and advances the progressive formalization of underserved segments of the economy.
This development reinforces AXIAN’s long-term ambition to scale digital-first regulated financial institutions across its footprint, contributing to the sustainable transformation of financial inclusion in Africa.
“This license marks a decisive step in AXIAN’s ambition to build inclusive and sustainable financial ecosystems in the Comoros and across our markets. It strengthens our Digibank & Fintech activities and enhances the impact of Mixx and MVola by enabling regulated financial services to complement our existing mobile financial capabilities. Concretely, this means that an individual or a farmer in Anjouan will be able to access a nano-loan directly from their mobile phone, without the need to travel to a bank branch. This initiative reflects AXIAN Digibank & Fintech’s broader commitment to empower individuals and entrepreneurs by making secure and accessible digital financial services universally available.”
–Erwan Gelebart, CEO, Axian Digibank & Fintech cluster
