The time has come for Action and Acceleration as Consultative Forum of African Banks CEOs met in South Africa on PAPSS

Afreximbank in collaboration with the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has successfully organized the first Consultative Forum of CEOs of African Banks bringing together executives of African commercial banks, bankers’ associations, payment switches, the association of African stock exchanges and other financial service providers.

The Forum provided the much needed avenue for participants to deliberate on the successes and challenges of the PAPSS payment system and explore potential path forward on how it can be optimised to facilitate seamless and efficient cross-border payments to support the implementation of the AfCFTA.

Following productive discussions, participants at the Forum agreed to take collective ownership of the success and the future of PAPSS given its significant and hugely positive impact on the facilitation of cross-border payments and the development of intra-African trade.

In addition, participants advocated to leverage PAPSS as a pathway to increasing the share of African currencies in intra-African trade and other cross-border payments, as well as increasing the volume of intra-regional payments for mutual benefits to drive rapid adoption of PAPSS by businesses and also to embed PAPSS into their digital channels to enable ease of access and seamless integration for existing customers.

A brain brainchild of Afreximbank and proudly supported by the African Union African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, PAPSS is a Pan-African Payment & Settlement infrastructure that enables instant payments across African borders in local currency!

There are over 42 currencies in Africa, the new PAPSS approach allows a customer in one African country to pay in their own currency, while a seller in another country receives payment in their own currency.

With PAPSS, Africans will no longer need to convert local currencies into hard currencies which then entailed the funds leaving Africa to be converted before being sent back again to the beneficiary bank – adding days to the transaction time

More than that, horrible experiences like, " I paid an extra $165 ( $30 as transfer fee, $35 as SWIFT charges and another $100 bank charges ) on top of a $10,000 bank transfer to the seller on orders within Africa is over.

According to Benedict Oramah, President of the African Export-Import Bank, (Afreximbank), in a recent interview with Africa Renewal, ‘’a cumbersome and time-consuming process costs us [Africans] about $5 billion in [money transfer] charges each year.” Worst still, is the fact that included in this whopping sum are would-be -profits accruable to African Businesses, SMEs & Entrepreneurs, but are filtering away through Bank Charges, Exchange Rates & Transfer Fees amongst others.

How PAPSS works

Sending money using the PAPSS is a five-step process:

1.) The first step is when an individual issues a payment instruction to their local bank or payment service provider.

2.) Second, the bank or the payment service provider sends the instructions to PAPSS.

3.) Third, PAPSS validates the payment instruction.

4.) Fourth, upon successful validation, PAPSS will forward the instruction to the beneficiary’s bank or payment service provider.

5.) Lastly, the bank or payment service provide pays the transferred funds, in local currency, to the beneficiary.

Learn more here

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