Onafriq Nigeria Payments Limited, a CBN licenced payment service provider, partners with The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to pilot the continent’s first wallet-based outbound payments from Nigeria to Ghana – fully in Naira and instant, without relying on hard currency conversion, in partnership with Banks and Mobile Money Operators.
The pilot service, approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), enables cross-border intra-Africa payments for individuals, merchants, and traders.
In particular, the service will benefit SMEs, the real engine of intra-African trade; all now have access to a faster, cheaper way to reach customers and suppliers across the border.
By reducing barriers to cross-border trade, the new service will allow these businesses to grow their addressable markets and activity. From the 1st of December, this service will be fully operational for a 6-month period.
Through the partnership with PAPSS, Onafriq is supporting the operationalization of the AfCFTA (Africa Continental Free Trade Area) mandate.
The mandate itself is driving tariff-free trade for the 54 member states of AfCFTA. Within the partnership itself, Onafriq provides the mobile money rails, with an ecosystem consisting of over 1 billion mobile wallets. Meanwhile, PAPSS brings a network of over 160 commercial banks, representing an ecosystem of more than 400 million bank accounts across its 19 African countries of operation.
The two partners are essentially seamlessly connecting two worlds: mobile money and banking. As a consequence, intra-African trade transactions will take place more easily and opportunities will be created.
Currently, Africa is made up of bank and mobile-led markets, with siloes often inhibiting transactions between these economies. However, this partnership will remove these boundaries.
With over one billion mobile wallets and 500 million bank wallets across Africa, this partnership will allow for cross-border collaboration at scale.
This partnership builds on Onafriq and PAPSS’ existing partnership for payments into Ghana, announced earlier this year.
Mxolisi Msutwana, managing director Anglophone West Africa at Oneafriq, said,
“Our work with PAPSS shows what collaboration at scale can unlock; seamless, secure connections between banking systems and mobile money ecosystems. This is how we open bi-directional trade corridors, reduce costs for businesses, and give African enterprises the rails they need to trade with confidence in their own currencies. The vision is continental, but it starts with practical steps like this one.”
Ositadimma Ugwu, chief information officer, PAPSS, added
“Too often, African businesses and individuals see borders as roadblocks instead of opportunities. With this step, we’re challenging that mindset, giving Nigerians the ability to send value next door with the same ease as sending a text message. Our vision is simple: make Africa’s borders invisible to payments. This pilot makes that a reality, moving us closer to a continent where payments don’t pause at the border.”
This new Nigeria-to-Ghana outbound capability builds on the successful Ghana-to-Nigeria instant payments corridor launched earlier this year – further proof that Africa’s payments future is local, instant, and inclusive.
