The African Export-Import Bank has created a payment solution platform,  Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, to facilitate instant cross-border payments in local African currencies.

This is expected to save African traders about $5bn annually in currency convertibility.

The announcement was contained in a statement by the CEO, PAPPS, Mike Oghalu, while speaking at the post-annual general meeting of the International Chamber for Commerce of Nigeria in Lagos. According to Oghalu,  “Intra-Africa trade is by far the lowest intra-continental trade globally standing at 15-17per cent.”

A statement by Oghalu explained that  most of the cross-border payment transactions originating from African banks were highly dependent on foreign exchange and cleared outside the continent, with less than 20 per cent of the total payment flows being cleared in Africa.

Speaking during his presentation titled, ‘Connecting Payments, Accelerating Africa’s Trade’, in Lagos,  he explained that with the advent of PAPPS as one of the four pillars of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, cross-border transactions were made easy with a successful pilot in WAMZ region and partnerships with  central banks in multi-lingual, multi-currency and multi regulator region.

Oghalu further added in his statement that PAPSS was designed to support integration in both national and regional payment systems with a sound legal framework and had many commercial banks and switches already on its network.