Deleting My Account
This page explains how to permanently close your Gwiza account and delete your personal data.
Overview
You can request the deletion of your Gwiza account at any time. Because Gwiza is operated by MVend Limited, an Electronic Money Issuer licensed and regulated by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), account deletion follows a structured process designed to protect your funds and comply with Rwandan financial law. This page explains what happens when you delete your account, what data is removed, what data we are legally required to retain, and how long the process takes.
Before You Delete Your Account
To protect your money, please complete the following steps before submitting a deletion request. We cannot close an account that holds a balance or has unsettled obligations.
- Withdraw or transfer your full wallet balance. Cash out at any Gwiza agent, transfer funds to another wallet or bank account, or spend your remaining balance. Your account balance must be RWF 0 (or the equivalent in your local currency).
- Withdraw your savings. Close any active digital savings plans and transfer the proceeds to your wallet, then withdraw them.
- Repay outstanding loans. Accounts with active loan balances cannot be closed until the loan is fully repaid.
- Cancel scheduled and recurring payments. Any standing bill payments, scheduled transfers, or merchant subscriptions linked to your wallet will stop working once your account is closed.
- Resolve pending transactions and disputes. Transactions in progress, pending remittances, and open dispute cases must be completed or resolved first.
- Download your statements. Once your account is closed, you will no longer be able to log in to view your transaction history. Download any statements you need from Profile → Statements before you proceed. After closure, statements can only be obtained by writing to our support team and verifying your identity.
If your account holds a balance and you are unable to withdraw it yourself (for example, due to a lost SIM), contact our support team before requesting deletion so we can return your funds to you safely.
How to Delete Your Account
Option 1: From the Gwiza app (Android and iOS)
- Open the Gwiza app and log in.
- Go to My Profile → Under My Account section, click Delete Account
- Review the information about data deletion, Select Reason to delete the account and click Continue.
- Click Delete My Account and confirm your action with your PIN
What Happens After You Request Deletion
1. Verification (immediately). We confirm your identity and check that your account meets the closure conditions (zero balance, no active loans, no pending transactions). If anything is outstanding, we will tell you exactly what needs to be resolved.
2. Grace period (30days). Your account is deactivated immediately: you can no longer send or receive money, and your wallet is hidden from other users. For 30days, you can cancel the deletion request by logging back in and selecting Restore My Account, or by contacting support. This protects you against accidental or fraudulent deletion requests.
3. Permanent closure (after 30days). Your account is permanently closed. Your profile, saved beneficiaries, linked cards and bank accounts, device tokens, notification preferences, in-app messages, and marketing permissions are deleted from our production systems within 30 days of closure. Residual copies in encrypted backups are purged on our standard backup rotation cycle, within a maximum of 10 years.
Once your account is permanently closed, it cannot be reopened. If you want to use Gwiza again in the future, you will need to register a new account and complete KYC verification again.
What We Delete and What We Must Keep
We delete everything we are not legally required to keep. However, as a BNR-licensed Electronic Money Issuer, MVend Limited is subject to record-keeping obligations under Rwandan law that apply even after your account is closed. Deleting your account does not erase these records, and we are not permitted to delete them early, even at your request.
Deleted within 30 days of permanent closure:
- Device identifiers, push notification tokens, and biometric login settings
- Marketing and analytics identifiers; you are unsubscribed from all communications
Retained after closure, as required by law:
- Customer identification (KYC) records and transaction history. Under Law nº 001/2025 of 22/01/2025 on the prevention and punishment of money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the National Bank of Rwanda’s regulations governing electronic money issuers and payment service providers (including Regulation N° 54/2022), we must retain customer due diligence records and transaction records for the period prescribed by law after the business relationship ends. These records are kept in secure, access-restricted archives and are used only to meet legal, regulatory, audit, and law-enforcement obligations.
- Records related to disputes, fraud investigations, or legal proceedings, for as long as the matter remains open and any applicable limitation period runs.
- Financial and accounting records required under Rwandan tax and company law.
When the legally mandated retention period expires, these records are securely destroyed or irreversibly anonymized.
Your rights under Law N° 058/2021 relating to the protection of personal data and privacy including the rights of access, rectification, erasure, and objection, remain available to you, subject to the legal retention obligations described above. To exercise these rights, contact our Data Protection Officer at support@mvendgroup.com
Unclaimed Funds
If an account is closed or becomes dormant while still holding a balance, the funds remain your property. Dormant and unclaimed e-money balances are handled in accordance with BNR requirements: funds are safeguarded in a segregated trust account with a licensed commercial bank and can be reclaimed by you (or your legal heirs) at any time before they are transferred to the central bank as required by applicable dormancy rules. Contact our support team with proof of identity to reclaim funds from a closed account.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the whole process take? Deactivation is immediate. Permanent closure occurs after the 30-day grace period, and deletion of eligible personal data from production systems is completed within 30 days after that.
Will deleting the app from my phone delete my account? No. Uninstalling the app does not close your account or delete your data. You must submit a deletion request using one of the methods above.
What happens to the money someone sends me after my account is closed? Transfers to a closed account are automatically rejected and returned to the sender.
Why can’t I delete my transaction history? As a regulated financial institution, we are legally required to retain identification and transaction records for a prescribed period after account closure under Rwanda’s anti-money laundering law and BNR regulations. This obligation overrides individual erasure requests for those specific records, as permitted under the data protection law.
Who can I contact with questions? Our support team at support@mvendgroup.com or call 7378, or our Data Protection Officer at support@mvendgroup.com. If you are not satisfied with how we handle your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the National Cyber Security Authority (the Data Protection and Privacy Office) or with the National Bank of Rwanda’s consumer protection function.
MVend Limited is licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda as an Electronic Money Issuer and Payment Service Provider. Last updated: June 2026.
