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Overview

As part of using the pawaPay platform, you will have access to our sandbox environment. Your sandbox account will have access to all the MMOs available on our platform. This allows you to safely test your integration without using actual mobile money wallets and real funds. In the sandbox, we provide special phone numbers (MSISDNs) that allow you to simulate both successful and unsuccessful transactions, helping you verify how your integration handles various payment outcomes.

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Sandbox test phone numbers (MSISDNs)

These phone numbers can only be used in sandbox, not in production. The payment process is faster than in production as the customer does not actually enter the PIN prompt to authorise the payment.

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Technical failure codes

Technical failures should not happen during live operation and are intended to provide clear information during the development of the integration.
Failure CodeOperationDescription
INVALID_RECIPIENT_FORMATPayoutsThe financial address for the recipient is in an unrecognizable format. Please refer to recipient in Mobile Money Payout Request
INVALID_PAYER_FORMATDepositsThe financial address for the payer is in an unrecognizable format. Please refer to payer in Mobile Money Deposit Request.
INVALID_CURRENCYBothThe currency is not supported by the MMO specified as the correspondent.
INVALID_AMOUNTBothThe amount is in an unrecognizable format. Please refer to amount in Mobile Money Deposit Request.
INVALID_COUNTRYBothThe country is not supported by the MMO specified as the correspondent.
AMOUNT_TOO_SMALLBothThe specified amount is smaller than the minimum allowed by the MMO specified as the correspondent.
AMOUNT_TOO_LARGEBothThe specified amount is larger than the maximum allowed by the MMO specified as the correspondent.
PARAMETER_INVALIDBothAn invalid parameter was found as part of the request.
DEPOSITS_NOT_ALLOWEDDepositsThe MMO specified as the correspondent does not support deposit transactions.
PAYOUTS_NOT_ALLOWEDPayoutsThe MMO specified as the correspondent does not support payout transactions.
AUTHENTICATION_ERRORBothThe token specified for authentication is not valid or missing. Please refer to Authentication.
INVALID_INPUTBothWe were was unable to parse the payload of the request.

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Transaction failure codes

Transaction failures are expected to happen during live operation and are intended to provide clear information as to why a particular payment was not successful.
Failure CodeOperationDescription
PAYER_LIMIT_REACHEDDepositsThe customer has reached a limit on their wallet. Example: Customer is only allowed to transfer a maximum of 1 000 000 a week.
PAYER_NOT_FOUNDDepositsThe phone number (MSISDN) specified as the payer does not belong to the MMO specified as the correspondent.
PAYMENT_NOT_APPROVEDDepositsThe customer did not authorize the payment. Example: Customer did not enter their PIN in time.
INSUFFICIENT_BALANCEDepositsThe customer does not have enough funds to perform the deposit.
TRANSACTION_ALREADY_IN_PROCESSDepositsThe customer is initiating a transaction while an unfinished transaction is still pending. Note: Some MMOs only allow a single transaction to be processed at any given time. When the customer does not enter the PIN to authorize a payment in time, it might take up to 10 minutes for them to be able to initiate a new transaction.
BALANCE_INSUFFICIENTPayoutsThe balance of your pawaPay wallet does not have the funds to initiate this payout.
RECIPIENT_NOT_FOUNDPayoutsThe phone number (MSISDN) specified as the recipient, does not belong to the Mobile Money Operator (MMO) specified as the correspondent.
RECIPIENT_NOT_ALLOWED_TO_RECEIVEPayoutsThe recipient has reached a limit on their wallet that stops them from being able to accept this payout. Example: The customers wallet is able to hold up to 1 000 000 and the payout would take their balance over this limit.
MANUALLY_CANCELLEDPayoutsThe payout request was enqueued and subsequently failed manually from the pawaPay Dashboard or through the Cancel Enqueued Payout endpoint.
OTHER_ERRORBothThe payment failed due to an unknown error.
CORRESPONDENT_TEMPORARILY_UNAVAILABLEBothThe MMO specified as the correspondent is currently experiencing an outage and processing of payments has been temporarily halted. Please refer to our Status Page for live information about MMO availability.