A large part of African commerce happens without a website: on WhatsApp, on Instagram and Facebook, over the phone, in store or on invoice. Payment is often a mobile money transfer to a personal number, followed by a screenshot to “prove” it happened. It is slow, hard to verify and impossible to reconcile properly.

A payment link replaces that routine. This guide explains how it works, when to use it and how to get the most out of it.

What is a payment link?

A payment link is a web address that opens a payment page hosted for you. You create it in a few clicks, send it to your customer, and they pay from their phone. At Monerails, the customer chooses their country and mobile money operator, enters their number, then approves the payment on their phone.

For you, there is no website to build and no code to write. For your customer, there is no app to install and no account to create.

When to use one

• Selling on social media. Confirm the order on WhatsApp or in a direct message, then send the link.
• Invoices. Add the link to the invoice: the customer pays in one step instead of looking for an account number.
• Shops and counters. Print the link’s QR code next to the till: the customer scans it and pays from their phone.
• Deposits and bookings. A fixed-amount link for a deposit, single-use for a specific order.
• Fees, donations and registrations. A reusable link where the customer enters the amount, with a minimum and maximum if needed.

Create a link in two minutes

In the dashboard, open Collect, then Create a payment link. The settings are simple:

Each link gets a short address in the form monerails.com/pay/… and a QR code. In live mode, links are available once your business verification is approved.

What your customer sees

The page shows your business name and logo, the title, the amount and the description. The customer enters their country, operator, number and name. Depending on the operator, they approve on their phone with their PIN, or type on the page the code they received. The page follows the payment live and shows a receipt with a reference as soon as it succeeds.

The page appears in English or French depending on the customer’s browser. The customer pays no fee through the link: your usual collection fee applies to each successful payment, as for any collection.

Why it is safer than a personal number

• The price cannot be changed. Amount, countries and operators are checked again when the payment starts: a customer cannot change the price of a fixed-amount link.
• Your information stays private. The page never shows your account details, your balance or other payments.
• Abuse is limited. Payments are capped per network and per link, and a single-use link accepts only one payment at a time.
• Your business is kept separate. The money lands on your business balance, not in a personal wallet mixed with everyday spending.

Track your payments

In Collect › Payment links, each link shows its status (active, deactivated, expired, or paid for a single-use link already settled), the number of payments and the amount collected. Open a link to copy its address, show its QR code, see the payments received or deactivate it; a deactivated link can be reactivated.

Payments received through links also appear with all your collections and in your transactions, and credit your balance like any other collection. You can then pay suppliers from that balance or settle it to your own account.

Example: a fashion shop in Abidjan

Aïcha sells clothes on Instagram and WhatsApp from Abidjan. Before, each order ended with a transfer to her personal number and a screenshot to check. With payment links, her routine becomes:

1. A customer confirms a 25,000 CFA franc order on WhatsApp.
2. Aïcha creates a single-use, fixed-amount link with the order number as reference, and sends it in the chat.
3. The customer chooses Wave, Orange Money, MTN MoMo or Moov Money, approves on her phone and gets a receipt.
4. Aïcha sees the successful payment in her dashboard and prepares the parcel.

For her pop-up shop sales, she keeps a reusable link with a free amount, printed as a QR code on the counter.

Payment link or API?

A useful habit: deactivate reusable links you no longer use, such as an old promotion or a finished event, so that nobody pays an outdated price. A deactivated link shows the customer that it is no longer available, and you can reactivate it at any time if you need it again.

Going further: webhooks

If you use point-of-sale, invoicing or order management software, subscribe it to events. Each payment through a link sends the usual collection events, and a successful payment also triggers payment_link.paid, with your internal reference. Deliver the order when you receive that event, never on the customer’s word alone. The payment links guide has a full example.

Five tips to collect better

1. An explicit title: “Order #2041 — 2 pairs of sandals” reassures more than “Payment”.
2. One single-use link per invoice, so every payment reconciles without effort.
3. A short expiry for promotions, so you do not collect an old price weeks later.
4. A clearly visible QR code in store, with the list of accepted operators.
5. A short accompanying message explaining the approval step on the phone, for customers who are new to paying online.

Payment links are the simplest way into Monerails collections. The day you launch a website or an app, the mobile money API guide takes over, with the same fees and the same dashboard. To find the operators in your country, read our article on mobile money in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.