Payment facilitator (PayFac) model

Watenga is the merchant of record with payment partners. Your business is a sub-merchant in Watenga's ledger — similar to Stripe Connect or Paystack's aggregate model.

Not legal advice

This documentation summarizes Watenga's integration and compliance posture for developers and merchants. It does not constitute legal, tax, or regulatory advice. Canonical policies live in our security documentation repository. Consult qualified counsel for jurisdiction-specific obligations.

Who sees what

NMB Bank — sees Watenga aggregate settlement; not individual sub-merchant identities.
Visa / Mastercard — see sub-merchants via statement descriptor WATENGA*<suffix> on each card transaction.
Your customers — see your brand in checkout; card statements show the Watenga prefix plus your configured suffix.

Statement descriptor

Total length 22 characters maximum. Prefix WATENGA* is fixed (8 chars). Your suffix is up to 14 characters: A–Z, 0–9, space, dot, dash only. Configure during onboarding or in merchant settings.

Chargebacks

Chargebacks debit Watenga's bank account first. We claw back from your Watenga balance, including rolling reserve (5% held 90 days by default). Insufficient balance triggers admin recovery workflows. Merchant-facing dispute tools: dispute webhooks (W05 dashboard UI).

KYC and UBO

Card processing requires approved KYC. Beneficial owners above 25% must be declared with national ID, PEP, and sanctions screening. Complete the compliance wizard in the merchant dashboard.

Visa registration watch

Rolling 12-month USD volume is tracked. Crossing $900k triggers an admin alert; crossing $1M requires formal Visa sub-merchant registration before additional volume.

Not a bank account

Your Watenga balance is a ledger balance — withdrawals go to verified bank accounts, mobile money, or agent cash-out per market configuration.