Wave and Orange Money refunds: complete technical guide (May 2026)

No customer enjoys waiting 5 days to recover 30,000 XOF on a canceled order. No accountant enjoys reconciling poorly tracked partial refunds. This guide ships the clean technical procedure for Wave and Orange Money in Senegal.

TL;DR

- Wave: refund via Wave Business app or API, instant, free up to 7 days, 1% beyond.

- OM: refund via partner dashboard, 24–72h, free if not yet settled, otherwise 2%.

- Card (PayDunya/CinetPay): 5–7 days, free if total, 100 XOF + 0.5% if partial.

- Always trace: dedicated refunds table, link to parent PaymentEvent, audit log.

Wave Business: refund via API

The Wave Refund API (mid-2024) accepts total or partial refund of an existing payment.

`ts

async function refundWavePayment(paymentId: string, amountXof?: number, reason?: string) {

const res = await fetch(${WAVE_API}/v1/refunds, {

method: 'POST',

headers: {

'Authorization': Bearer ${WAVE_API_KEY},

'Content-Type': 'application/json',

'Idempotency-Key': refund_${paymentId}_${amountXof ?? 'full'},

},

body: JSON.stringify({

payment_id: paymentId,

amount: amountXof,

currency: 'XOF',

reason: reason ?? 'merchant_initiated',

}),

});

if (!res.ok) throw new Error(Wave refund failed: ${res.status} ${await res.text()});

return res.json();

}

`

Idempotency mandatory: sending the same request twice without a key refunds twice. The key refund_${paymentId}_${amount} makes the op safe.

Orange Money: no public refund API

OM Senegal does not expose a public programmatic refund API in May 2026. Procedure:

• Sign in to OM partner dashboard (web)
• Find the transaction by reference or number
• "Cancel / Refund" action
• Enter OTP sent to signatory phone
• Confirm → 24–72h delay for the customer

Automation workaround: webhook triggers a job that notifies a human agent, plus a refund-to-do journal. Not ideal but realistic.

Accounting trace: the Refund model

`prisma

model Refund {

id String @id @default(cuid())

externalId String? @unique

paymentEventId String

paymentEvent PaymentEvent @relation(fields: [paymentEventId], references: [id])

orderId String

amount Int

currency String

reason String

status String

initiatedBy String

notes String?

createdAt DateTime @default(now())

completedAt DateTime?

@@index([orderId])

@@index([status])

}

`

Standard refund workflow

`

[Customer request]

↓

[Manager approval (>50K XOF)]

↓

[Create Refund.status = "requested"]

↓

[Provider API attempt]

/ \

[OK] [Failure]

↓ ↓

[completed] [failed → human alert]

↓

[Notify customer (WhatsApp + email)]

↓

[Audit log]

`

Real fees and delays

Dispute handling (chargebacks)

Card payments only (Wave/OM don't support bank chargebacks):

• PayDunya/Stripe → dispute.created webhook
• Response window: 7–14 days (Visa/Mastercard)
• Submit evidence: order screenshot, proof of delivery, customer IP, logs
• Decision: 30–90 days

Tip: automate evidence collection at order time (IP, user-agent, delivery signature). Collecting at dispute time = too late.

FAQ

Q: Refund a Wave payment after 90 days?

A: Yes via API up to 180 days. Beyond, manual bank transfer.

Q: Does the customer need the same OM account to receive the refund?

A: Yes, OM refunds to source. If the number is deactivated, it sits pending. Workaround: compensating bank transfer.

Q: How to prevent refund abuse?

A: Scoring rules: refunds per month, refunded/ordered ratio, account age. Auto-block past 3 in a month.

Conclusion

Refunds are under-invested by 90% of Senegalese e-commerce SMEs. Doing it well builds trust, shortens support, protects accounting. A few hours upfront saves many hours every month.