{
  "id": 6552182,
  "title": "Can PAPSS overcome regulatory hurdles to transform intra-African payments?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/can-papss-overcome-regulatory-hurdles-to-transform-intra-african",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-10T06:12:55.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechCabal",
    "slug": "techcabal",
    "url": "https://techcabal.com/2026/09/10/papss-payment-network-africans-use/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Since its inception in January 2022, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) has been constructing the infrastructure for a more interconnected African economy. Today, PAPSS boasts connections with 30 African countries, 24 central banks, around 200 financial institutions, and over 16 payment switches. Transactions that once took three to five days are now settled in an average of seven seconds, adhering to the system's guarantee of processing within 120 seconds. PAPSS has also managed to reduce the cost of cross-border money transfers by up to 95%, with transaction volumes surging by over 1,000% in the past year. This ambitious Pan-African payment network was launched by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in collaboration with the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to facilitate trade across the continent without necessitating transaction routing through external financial infrastructure.\n\nHowever, the journey to fully realizing PAPSS's potential is not without challenges. Despite the system's ability to move money between African markets without the need to convert local currencies, intra-African trade remains relatively low at 14.4% of Africa’s total trade in 2024. Moreover, remittance costs in Sub-Saharan Africa are among the highest, with an average cost of 8.45% in Q1 2025. PAPSS seeks to address these issues by providing a common infrastructure that enables seamless transfer of funds within the continent. The system's multilateral net settlement eliminates the need to settle each transaction individually between two countries, instead netting flows in each direction and moving only the difference.\n\nPAPSS has also launched a Pan-African Currency Marketplace (PACM) in 2025, a direct matching system that allows for the exchange of African currencies at prevailing exchange rates in various countries. This initiative aims to tackle the fragmented nature of the continent's currencies and the limited convertibility of African currencies. Nevertheless, the success of PAPSS hinges on its adoption by businesses and consumers. While some markets have seen banks integrate PAPSS into their digital channels, adoption remains limited in other markets due to regulatory requirements, insufficient technological infrastructure, lack of awareness, and the speed at which local financial institutions adopt the system.\n\nThe progress of PAPSS is significantly influenced by central banks, which play a pivotal role in determining the speed at which the network is adopted. In markets where central banks are supportive, such as Ghana and Nigeria, banks are more likely to integrate PAPSS and develop products around it. However, in countries where central banks are more cautious, the adoption process can be significantly slowed. For instance, in Kenya, the Central Bank's issuance of a letter of no objection for the launch of M-Pesa in 2007, supported by safeguards against fraud and money laundering, contributed to M-Pesa's rapid growth from one million users in its first nine months to four million within 18 months. As PAPSS moves into its next phase, focusing on deepening the network and making its capabilities more accessible to businesses and consumers, the challenge will be ensuring that the infrastructure is not only connected but also actively used and contributes to the trade PAPSS was built to support.",
  "summary": "Since launching in January 2022, PAPSS says it currently connects 30 African countries, 24 central banks, about 200 financial institutions and more than 16 payment switches.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}