Your questions, answered

WANYIYIN is West Africa's first premium dating app with identity checked by hand. Founded and launched in Cotonou, Benin, WANYIYIN offers an experience radically different from general-purpose apps: every profile is reviewed by a trained person before it goes live.

WANYIYIN is not a casual or entertainment dating service. Its purpose is to make serious connections possible between verified people who share compatible values, culture and relationship goals.

The platform is available on the App Store and Google Play, and operates in Cotonou (Benin), with expansion planned to Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and other West African markets.

No. WANYIYIN is open to any adult living or staying in the countries we cover, whatever their nationality. Members of the African diaspora living abroad can also create a profile.

The app is available in French and supports the main national languages (Fon, Yoruba, Ewe) for parts of the interface. English versions are planned in coming updates.

Checking by hand: every profile is verified by a person who examines an official identity document. No bot and no artificial intelligence performs that check — it is a deliberate choice.

A culturally aware algorithm: the compatibility formula includes factors specific to West Africa (language, cultural background, religion, views on family) which make up 30% of the compatibility score.

The Agency Service: WANYIYIN can arrange your first in-person date at a selected partner venue. Nothing like it exists elsewhere in West Africa.

The token system: every message has a cost, which means the people writing to you are serious about it.

Signing up happens in the app only. The whole process takes about 10 minutes: download the app, enter your phone number and confirm the OTP code sent by SMS, create a secure password, complete your profile, submit an official identity document for verification, then accept the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

Your account is created straight away, but features stay limited until you get your Verified badge. You will be notified as soon as your check has been handled, within a maximum of 48 working hours.

A valid national identity card (both sides), a valid biometric passport (photo page), or a valid residence permit for foreign nationals living in the countries we cover.

The document must be valid, fully legible and belong to the account holder. The name on the document never appears in your public profile: only your first name is visible to other members.

Your document is examined by hand by a trained WANYIYIN agent, for the sole purpose of verifying your identity. It is then permanently deleted from our servers within a maximum of 72 hours of the decision.

Only the yes-or-no result of the check (Verified badge: yes or no) is kept. Your document number and full name are erased from our systems. You can ask for confirmation of that deletion at contact@wanyiyin.com.

You can create an account and browse in a limited way without verification. However, to send messages, get Matches, buy tokens and use the full set of features, verification is required.

A service without universal verification would be a service without any guarantee of authenticity. Verification is the price of trust.

No, without exception. WANYIYIN is strictly for people aged 18 and over. Date of birth is checked during the verification process, and any account created by a minor is permanently suspended as soon as it is detected, with no refund of any tokens bought.

Tokens are the app's internal unit of value. They give you access to paid features: sending a message to a Match (3 tokens), boosting your profile for 24 hours (15 tokens), sending a Super Like (8 tokens), Rewind (5 tokens).

Tokens are bought in packs from the app. You keep them for as long as your account is active; they do not expire. If you delete your account, any unused tokens are permanently lost and not refunded.

MTN Mobile Money (Benin, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana), Moov Money (Benin, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso), Orange Money (Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali), Wave (Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso), as well as Visa and Mastercard bank cards with 3D Secure.

All payments are handled by PCI-DSS certified processors. WANYIYIN never stores your card details.

Token purchases are firm and final. Because tokens are digital value vouchers for immediate use, they are not covered by the 14-day right of withdrawal that applies to physical goods.

WANYIYIN does however refund in full in three cases: a confirmed technical fault that deducted tokens in error, the same transaction charged twice, or the app closing down before you have used your tokens.

For any claim, contact support@wanyiyin.com within 7 working days of the incident.

Yes. Every new member automatically receives 15 free tokens when their account is approved, so they can try the premium features before buying anything. These welcome tokens are credited as soon as you get your Verified badge.

All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). Your password is hashed irreversibly and WANYIYIN can never read it. Your identity document is deleted within 72 hours of verification. Your phone number is encrypted and never shared with other members. Your card details are never stored by WANYIYIN.

We run regular security audits with independent providers, and any security researcher can report a vulnerability confidentially at security@wanyiyin.com.

No, never, and unconditionally. WANYIYIN formally undertakes never to sell, rent or monetise its members' personal data. We make money from selling tokens, not from selling data. That commitment is written into our Privacy Policy, which makes it contractually binding.

Two ways: directly in the app (Settings → My account → Delete my account), or by sending a written request to contact@wanyiyin.com stating your first name and surname, the phone number registered to the account, and attaching a copy of your ID.

WANYIYIN will delete everything within 30 days, subject to legal retention obligations (transaction records are kept for 10 years under accounting rules).

No. WANYIYIN never discloses a member's phone number, email address, home address or any other personal contact detail to another member. All communication goes through our secure internal messaging.

We strongly advise against giving your personal contact details to members you have only just met.

Report the profile straight away from the app (the "Report" button on every profile and in every conversation). WANYIYIN undertakes to review every report within 72 working hours and to suspend any profile whose authenticity cannot be confirmed.

If the attempt involves a request for money (a romance scam), send nothing and also report the incident to the economic and financial crime unit in Benin or its equivalent in your country, keeping all the evidence.

WANYIYIN's algorithm is built on one conviction: in Africa, lasting compatibility between two people depends on cultural, family and social dimensions that plain geolocation does not capture.

The more complete your profile and the more precise your preferences, the more relevant your suggestions will be. The algorithm learns from what you actually do to refine its recommendations.

Several possible reasons: your profile is not complete enough (aim for at least 80%), you have not yet obtained your Verified badge (required to appear in feeds), the number of active members in your area is still small, or your search criteria are too narrow.

Once you have matched and both of you have been exchanging messages regularly for at least 72 hours, an invitation appears automatically in your conversation (available for the "Serious relationship" category).

Both members must accept. A WANYIYIN adviser then takes over through the internal messaging, contacts both parties and proposes several time slots along with a selection of carefully chosen partner venues.

Once agreed, all the practical details are sent through: date, time, exact place and useful directions. The adviser stays available right up to the meeting itself.

WANYIYIN only selects partner venues that meet a set of criteria: registered businesses, public or semi-public spaces (never a private place for a first meeting), staff trained to look after guests, and easy to reach.

We recommend telling someone you trust the place and time of every first meeting. If anything worries you, you can call our emergency line from the app.

WANYIYIN acts as the organising intermediary. Personal safety during an in-person meeting remains each member's own responsibility.

From the app: tap the "Report" icon, choose the matching category (fake profile, harassment, scam, inappropriate content, suspected minor, other), add a description and confirm. You will get an acknowledgement, and the report is handled within 72 working hours.

For urgent situations involving an immediate threat, email support@wanyiyin.com with the subject "URGENT - SAFETY": those emails get absolute priority and are handled within 4 hours.

You receive a notification giving the reason and the length of the suspension. For temporary suspensions, your account is reactivated automatically at the end of that period.

If you believe a suspension is unjustified, you can appeal at support@wanyiyin.com within fifteen (15) days. WANYIYIN undertakes to review every appeal within ten (10) working days.

Suspensions for serious reasons (impersonation, proven harassment, romance scams, content endangering minors) are permanent and cannot be appealed.

General support and technical questions: support@wanyiyin.com (48-72 working hours). Data protection: contact@wanyiyin.com (30 days maximum). ID verification: kyc@wanyiyin.com (48 working hours). Partnerships: partenaires@wanyiyin.com. General enquiries and press: contact@wanyiyin.com.

Elite Circle members get dedicated support with a guaranteed reply within 24 working hours, through the priority channel in the app settings.

Yes. WANYIYIN is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad running iOS 14.0 or later, and on the Google Play Store for devices running Android 8.0 (Oreo) or later.

WANYIYIN is built to work on a 3G connection or better. A lighter version is in development for areas with weaker connectivity.

On the sign-in screen, tap "Forgotten password". Enter the phone number linked to your account: you will receive a 6-digit OTP code by SMS, valid for 10 minutes.

If you no longer have access to the registered number, contact support@wanyiyin.com giving your first name, the old number, the new number, and attaching a copy of your ID.

Your account can be used on one device at a time. If you sign in from a new device, the app will ask for an OTP check and the previous session is closed automatically. This restriction is a security measure.

If you change phone, your tokens, your profile and your conversations are saved on our servers and are not lost.