CBN, Five Other Central Banks Begin Pan African Payment System

The Pan-African Payment and Settlement Systems (PAPSS) has been rolled out among all central banks.

The new payment system is a cross-border financial market infrastructure that enables payment transactions across Africa and will bridge trade setbacks among the 41 known currencies in Africa.

It is estimated to save Africa around $5bn in transaction cost.

Another area that the PAPSS will aid the continent is the facilitation of the intra-African trade which is enabled by the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Checks by THE WHISTLER reveals that six pilot central banks are already on its website.

They include the Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Ghana, Central Bank of the Gambia, Central Bank of Liberia, Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea and Bank of Sierra Leone.

On the website, PAPSS said it “is bringing together a growing network of central banks, commercial banks, payment service providers and other financial intermediaries, recognising the economic benefits of simplifying the payment landscape across the African continent so that more Africans can trade with each other.”

The Chief Executive of PAPSS, Mike Ogbalu, said during the launch in Ghana that, “The system we have built is an infrastructure that will require third party interactions, so we may need even mobile money agents and other payment channels.

“By this way, traders can transact without necessary going to the banks when they need to send cash to other countries”

The Vice President of the Africa Development Bank, Solomon Quaynor said, “As a development bank for the continent, we are proud of the success story for this journey today and hope that it will benefit all Africans.

“The new payment system is critical to our quest to boost intra- African trade and reduce cost of doing business for Africans which has been an impediment for some time now.”