Zero-fee transfers: the math behind Aza's model
Free to the user doesn't mean free to run. Here's how we make the economics work — and why we think it's the only sustainable path.
The most common question we get from investors and users alike: "How do you make money if transfers are free?" It's a fair question. Mobile money charges 0.5–2% per transfer. Banks charge flat fees plus percentages. We charge nothing for P2P. So what's the model?
Revenue doesn't come from P2P
P2P transfer fees are the worst possible revenue model for a payments app trying to grow. Every fee is a reason not to send money. Every ₵1 charged is a reason to use a competitor. Free P2P is a growth strategy disguised as a loss leader — except it's not really a loss.
Our revenue comes from three places: merchant processing fees (businesses pay, not individuals), float income on funds held in the wallet, and platform fees from third-party mini-apps in the Hub. None of these touch the P2P transfer experience.
The float model
When you hold a balance in Aza, that money sits in a regulated, segregated bank account. The interest on that float is Aza's. At scale, with hundreds of thousands of users holding average balances of even ₵50, this compounds into meaningful revenue without charging a single person a single cedi for a transfer.
Merchant economics
Merchants pay 0.8% per transaction for QR and payment link payments — below the 1.5–2.5% typical for card networks, competitive with mobile money, and far simpler to reconcile. We make money when commerce happens. That aligns our incentives with our users: the more Aza is used, the more everyone benefits.
Why this is the only sustainable path
If you charge for P2P, you have a payments utility. If you make P2P free and build a platform on top of it, you have a super app. Utilities compete on price. Platforms compete on ecosystem. We're not building a utility.
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