When Sendwave is the right app
Open Sendwave when the destination is a phone rather than a bank account, and any of the following is true.
- The receiver in Kenya holds their money on M-Pesa and wants the shillings on the phone, not in a bank queue.
- The receiver in Ghana uses a mobile-money wallet on MTN (MoMo), AirtelTigo or Telecel and the money is needed the same afternoon.
On both, Sendwave puts the money direct in the mobile-money wallet on the receiver's phone. Its own pages say this takes seconds. Under £50 it can add a small fee: on 5 November 2026 that was 49p on Kenya, 99p on Nigeria and Senegal, and nothing on Ghana.
The rate you get can be a little worse than the real exchange rate, the one you would find on Google if you searched it right now. Early on the morning of 5 November 2026 that gap was about 1.3 percent on Kenya, 0.4 percent on Ghana and 2 percent on Senegal. On a £200 send that is about £3, £1 and £4 of hidden cost.
Wise also pays into M-Pesa and into MTN wallets in Ghana. We could not get its price into a wallet, so read it in the app. Each transfer has a limit. Wise's own pages give two different limits for one transfer into an M-Pesa wallet: 
150,000 shillings (about £850) on one page and 250,000 shillings on another. If you are sending more than about £850, check the limit in your app first. The limit to a Ghana wallet is 2,800 cedis (about £180). So £200 to a Ghana wallet on Wise needs two transfers or a bank account.
On any app, check the receiver's MTN wallet limit first. MTN's lowest wallet level has a daily limit of 3,000 cedis, which is less than £200.
If the money is needed while the receiver is standing at a market stall or a school gate, those seconds are the whole point.
When to open something else
Change the destination, the country or the amount, and another app may deliver more.
For a Kenyan bank account, check two apps. Wise puts the shillings straight into the account, usually in seconds, at the real exchange rate, with a small visible fee. Sendwave also pays Kenyan banks, at the same rate as M-Pesa. Early on the morning of 5 November 2026, Sendwave delivered more on £200: 34,570 shillings against 34,355 on Wise. At £500 the two were 44 shillings apart. At £1,000 Wise delivered more: 173,085 against 172,850. For what other apps quoted on Kenya in July, see the most recent Friday number for Kenya.
For a Ghana bank account, Wise pays the cedis direct at the real exchange rate with a small visible fee. Early on the morning of 5 November 2026, Sendwave and WorldRemit had no fee and both quoted more: 3,131 cedis on £200, against 3,087 on Wise. Check all three on the same amount.
Nigeria is a different case again. Sendwave pays into Nigerian bank accounts, and another app can deliver more. Wise puts the real naira rate on the screen with a small visible fee. LemFi, one of the specialist Nigeria apps UK senders reach for, quoted 1,856 naira to the pound on the morning of 5 November 2026, at no visible fee. That rate gave more naira than Sendwave on £200 to £500. Early that morning, Sendwave delivered more than Wise up to £400, and Wise delivered more at £500. The amount where Wise moves ahead changes during the day.
Check LemFi and Wise on the same amount before you press send, and read LemFi's rate in the app, because a quote before you log in can be a first-send price. For what other apps quoted on Nigeria in July, see the most recent Friday number for Nigeria.
The "no fee" pitch can also get thinner on a send much over £500. Wise's fee is a small fixed part plus a small percentage of the amount, and the percentage stays small even on big sends. Sendwave's rate margin, by contrast, is a percentage of the whole amount all the way up.
On £5,000, early on the morning of 5 November 2026, Sendwave's margin was about £64 of hidden cost on Kenya and about £34 on Nigeria. Wise's fee on a bank send was about £50 and about £28. Ghana went the other way: a margin of about £20 against a Wise fee of about £55. On these three routes, above about £500, open Wise on the same amount and compare what actually arrives on the other side.
Sendwave's payout lists on these four routes show wallets and bank accounts, not cash. If a family member needs paper money in their hand, in a place that only has a Western Union or MoneyGram counter for miles, use the Post Office counter, which is Western Union behind a Post Office logo, or Western Union directly.
The one thing to do before every Sendwave send
Sendwave's rate changes. The one that counts is the one the app shows on the specific amount the sender is about to send, before they confirm. That means the check is easy to skip and easy to do.
For Kenya, Ghana or Nigeria, open Sendwave and Wise side by side on the phone. Type the same amount into both. Read the shillings, cedis or naira that each app says will arrive on the other side. Send with the one that puts more of them there. The maths is not stable across weeks; the answer for last month is not the answer for this Sunday night.
On a Ghana wallet, put WorldRemit in the same check: on 5 November 2026 it quoted the same rate as Sendwave. On Nigeria, put LemFi in the check. Doing the check every time is the whole difference between "free" and cheap.
Senegal is different. Wise does not yet send pounds to Senegal, so the check there is Sendwave against WorldRemit. Early on the morning of 5 November 2026, on £200, WorldRemit quoted 154,515 francs with no fee, and Sendwave 154,060, about 60p less. WorldRemit's quote lists Wave and Orange Money, the same two wallets Sendwave pays, at one price. So open WorldRemit first, and read its rate in the app, because a quote before you log in can be a first-send price. 
WorldRemit's Senegal page says minutes, and Sendwave's pages say seconds. If seconds matter, the 60p may be worth paying.
Where your money sits
Sendwave in the UK is part of the Zepz Group, the same parent that owns WorldRemit. Your agreement in the UK is with WorldRemit Ltd, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, registration number 900891. It is not a UK bank. Sendwave's terms say money in its wallet is safeguarded as the law requires. WorldRemit says that when a transfer takes longer than usual, it keeps the money in a special account that holds only customers' money. This money is not covered by the UK bank compensation scheme the way money in a normal UK bank account is.
The verdict
For a UK-to-Africa send that needs to arrive on a phone in Ghana or Kenya, in seconds, on £200 to £500, Sendwave is the app to open. The fee line showed zero on those amounts on 5 November 2026. Early that morning the rate margin was small on these two routes. The mobile-money delivery is what the receiver actually wants. On a Ghana wallet, check WorldRemit on the same amount too. On M-Pesa, read Wise's price in its app too. For a Senegal wallet, open WorldRemit first.
For a Kenyan bank account, check Sendwave and Wise on the same amount. For a Ghana bank account, check Sendwave, Wise and WorldRemit. For Nigeria, check Wise and LemFi too. For anything over about £500 to Kenya, Ghana or Nigeria, put Wise on the same amount side by side and compare what actually arrives.
Whichever app is used, the number that matters is the shillings, cedis, naira or francs that arrive in the other account. Open two apps, type the same amount into both, and send with the one that puts more of them there.
Corrections
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said the cost is still there inside the rate, as a small margin baked into the exchange rate, and that the margin is small on Ghana and Kenya. Sendwave says it makes money from the exchange rate, which may include a small margin, and on the evening of 5 November its Ghana rate was above Wise's real rate, so the page now gives Sendwave's words and dates the margin to that morning.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said Wise puts shillings into a Kenyan bank account in seconds. Wise says typically in seconds, so the page now says usually.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said Sendwave says every send is free, and that the send is free on the fee line. Sendwave's pages say it may charge a small fee, and on 5 November it showed a fee under £50 on Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal, so the page now says so.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page compared Sendwave's cost into M-Pesa and Ghana wallets with Wise, said the check often picks Sendwave, and said Wise delivers more on M-Pesa from about £400. Those Wise prices were for a bank account and we could not get Wise's price into a wallet, so these lines are gone.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said to open Wise for a Kenyan bank account, and that a few zero-fee apps sometimes deliver a little more. Sendwave pays Kenyan banks at its M-Pesa rate and delivered more than Wise on £200 on 5 November, so the page now says to check both.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page called Sendwave the app to open for a Senegal wallet, and said to check whether WorldRemit reaches the wallet. WorldRemit lists Wave and Orange Money and quoted a little more, so the page now says to open it first.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said the check on Nigeria often picks Wise or LemFi, and that small sends favour another app. Early on the morning of 5 November Sendwave delivered more than Wise up to £400, so those lines are gone.
- 2026-11-05: The title of this page promised a case where Sendwave really is the cheapest. On 5 November it was level with WorldRemit on Ghana and behind it on Senegal, so the title has changed.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said most senders never notice the margin, and that mobile money usually appears before the sender puts the app down. We have no source for either line, so both are gone.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said the Friday numbers show what each app actually put into an account on a recent send. Those pieces are rates read in July, and nothing was sent, so the page now says what they hold.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said no mobile-money app can pay cash, and that no app will put paper money into a family member's hand. WorldRemit lists cash pickup in Senegal, so the page now says only that Sendwave's payout lists on these four routes show no cash.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Wise cannot pay into an M-Pesa or MTN wallet, and that other apps cannot reach these wallets or deliver less than Sendwave. Wise pays into M-Pesa, where its own pages give the limit for one transfer as 150,000 or 250,000 shillings, and into MTN wallets in Ghana up to 2,800 cedis. On M-Pesa, Wise can also deliver more on a bigger send, so the page now says all of this.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Sendwave's margin is typically around one and a half percent on the main African routes and that Wise's fee on £5,000 usually comes in below it. On 4 November the margin was about 0.5 percent on Ghana, where Wise's fee was the larger cost, so the page now gives dated figures for each route.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Sendwave's rate is shown only inside its app. Sendwave's website also shows a rate, so that line is gone.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Wise can take longer on Ghana bank sends and that LemFi often quotes close to the official Nigerian rate. Wise's own estimate on 4 November was seconds, and we have no current source for the LemFi line, so both are gone.
- 2026-11-04: On 2026-07-13 we narrowed this page to MTN in Ghana and Wave in Senegal. That was wrong: Sendwave's UK pages list AirtelTigo, MTN or Telecel for Ghana and Wave or Orange for Senegal, and the page now says so.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said your money sits in separate accounts at partner banks, in the same way as Wise and TransferGo. We have no source for the partner banks, and those two protect money differently, so the page now says what Sendwave's terms and WorldRemit's own page say.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page told a Senegal sender to compare Sendwave with Wise, and said that check will usually pick Sendwave. Wise does not yet send pounds to Senegal, so the page now compares Sendwave with WorldRemit, which quoted a little more on 4 November.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said to open Wise for a bank-to-bank send to Ghana. On 4 November WorldRemit quoted more into a Ghana bank account, so the page now says to check both.
- 2026-07-27: Removed dated route-specific numbers to keep the review accurate as rates move. Specific arrival amounts on £200 sends (Wise delivering about 33,912 shillings into a Kenyan bank; about 3,018 cedis into a Ghanaian bank; about 366,642 naira into Nigeria) and specific Wise fee figures on £5,000 sends were removed. Replaced with structural framing and cross-links to the most recent Friday number for each route where one exists.
- 2026-07-13: An earlier version of this page said Sendwave served Sierra Leone from the UK. It does not - Sendwave's UK country list confirms 55 destinations and Sierra Leone is not one of them. Sierra Leone has been removed from the opening paragraph, the "when Sendwave is the right app" list, the check-before-you-send section and the verdict.
- 2026-07-13: An earlier version of this page listed AirtelTigo Money and Telecel Cash alongside MTN Mobile Money as supported Ghana wallets on Sendwave. Sendwave's public Ghana pages only confirm MTN Mobile Money; the Ghana bullet has been narrowed to MTN MoMo.
- 2026-07-13: An earlier version of this page said the Senegal receiver could be on Wave or Free Money. Sendwave's Senegal payout-methods page only confirms Wave. The Senegal bullet has been narrowed to Wave.
- 2026-07-13: An earlier version of this page said Wise's fee on a £5,000 send was "somewhere around 15 to 20 pounds on most sends". On the UK-to-Africa routes this page compares, Wise's fee on £5,000 is around £50 to Kenya or Ghana and about 28 to Nigeria today. The figure has been corrected.