Ecobank Group, Access Bank Group, UBA Group, and two other institutions have formed a partnership with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to transform cross-border transactions across Africa.
This collaboration, which was finalized at Afreximbank’s 30th-anniversary celebrations and yearly meetings in Accra, Ghana, represents a significant advancement in achieving seamless cross-border trade payments across nearly 40 countries covered by these banks.
The agreement aims to enhance efficiency, transparency, and reliability in intra-African settlement. By adopting PAPSS’s advanced settlement model, the banks will streamline operations and empower businesses with a secure and technologically advanced platform for cross-border transactions.
They will work closely with payment companies to ensure the smooth integration of PAPSS into their existing systems.
This collaborative effort includes opening up the banks’ African footprints for PAPSS, facilitating transaction settlement, promoting Fintech participation through the banks, and expanding PAPSS to their current digital channels such as mobile app banking and e-banking.
Professor Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, commented on the signing, stating that these Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) represent a remarkable step toward realizing the aspirations of Africa’s visionary leaders who envisioned a payment and clearing union about six decades ago.
By leveraging the extensive coverage of these African commercial banks, PAPSS will seamlessly facilitate cross-border trade and payments, thereby boosting intra-African trade and investments while strengthening African currencies.
H.E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA, also emphasized the significance of the collaboration and the introduction of the new PAPSS Model, stating that it represents a bold step toward fully operationalizing PAPSS for the benefit of African traders and SMEs in implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Mike Ogbalu, CEO of PAPSS, expressed enthusiasm about the synergy, recognizing it as a significant milestone in the journey toward a more integrated and efficient African banking landscape.
By embracing PAPSS’s Commercial Bank Settlement Model, these banks are contributing to the establishment of a robust continental platform for facilitating cross-border payments, fostering financial inclusion, and driving substantial economic development across the continent.
The MoUs will be gradually implemented in collaboration with central banks in the countries where the five bank groups operate.
Customers of these banks in Africa will be notified through their usual communication channels once the service becomes available in their respective countries.
PAPSS and the banks are committed to making this service accessible by the end of the year.
