From Uche Usim, Abuja
To boost intra-Africa trade, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) Secretariat, Tuesday, announced the operational roll-out of the pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).
PAPSS is a revolutionary financial market infrastructure created to enable instant, cross-border payments in local currencies between African markets as AfCFTA takes effect.
By simplifying cross-border transactions and reducing the dependency on hard currencies for these transactions, PAPSS will galvanise grade within Africa significantly.
PAPSS will serve as a continent-wide platform for the processing, clearing and settling of intra-African trade and commerce payments, leveraging a multilateral net settlement system. Its full implementation is expected to save the continent more than US$5 billion in payment transaction costs each year.
The development of a pan-African payments infrastructure has been made possible by some of the continent’s leading institutions. The platform has been developed by Afreximbank, which also acts as the main settlement agent in partnership with participating African central banks. The implementation of the infrastructure is taking place in collaboration with the AfCFTA Secretariat with the endorsement of the African Union (AU).