News from Africa

PAPSS is Launched to ensure payments between the African States

A way to achieve seamless intra-Africa trade under the terms of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was strengthened by the formal roll-out of the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) payments platform. Afreximbank is one of the continent’s trade finance institutions. The platform is called the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and was first launched in July 2019 at an African Union summit in Niger. Ideally, PAPSS would enable instant payments in African currencies between merchants on the continent. Such payments have been obstructed by both the lack of technical solutions and by national banking restrictions.

Meanwhile, technical solutions are being provided by companies such as the Nigerian startup Verto, a B2B payments platform that provides a fast, simple, and reliable way for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers in over 200 countries across 39 currencies. Verto has recently raised a US$10 million Series A round to boost its geographical expansion.