The Kingdom of Morocco has become the 17th country to embrace the expanding network of subscribers to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), as one of its leading financial institutions, Bank Al-Maghrib, officially signed up to the PAPSS membership agreement.
Morocco’s enrollment has further consolidated Africa’s commitment to financial integration and intra-African trade under the banner of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Developed by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in partnership with the African Union and the AfCFTA Secretariat, PAPSS enables real-time, efficient, and cost-effective cross-border payments in African local currencies.
By welcoming Bank Al-Maghrib, PAPSS advances its mission of connecting African central banks and facilitating seamless cross-border trade, payment flows, and investment across the continent.
The Chief Executive Officer of PAPSS, Mike Ogbalu III, applauded the latest milestone and expressed delight in welcoming Bank Al-Maghrib to the PAPSS family.
“Morocco’s entry as our seventeenth country of presence demonstrates the growing momentum and trust in PAPSS as the solution for Africa’s cross-border payment challenges,” Ogbalu III said.
“With more countries joining, we are taking significant strides towards a truly unified African market, driving down transaction costs and empowering businesses and individuals across the continent,” he added.
With Morocco’s addition, PAPSS, now present across seventeen countries, along with over 150 commercial banks and 14 switches, continues to expand its reach and impact across Africa.
The PAPSS is a centralised financial market infrastructure that enables the efficient flow of money securely across African borders, minimising risk and contributing to financial integration across the regions.
PAPSS collaborates with African central banks to offer payment and settlement solutions that commercial banks and licensed payment service providers (switches, fintechs, aggregators, etc.) across the continent can connect to, making these services accessible to the public.
To date, PAPSS has developed and launched three payment solutions, namely PAPSS Instant Payment System (IPS), PAPSS African Currency Marketplace (PACM), and the PAPSSCARD, which was unveiled officially during the recent Afreximbank Annual General Meeting in Abuja late last month.
Afreximbank and the African Union (AU) first announced PAPSS at the 12th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union on July 7, 2019, in Niamey, Niger Republic, to adopt PAPSS as a key instrument for the implementation of the AfCFTA.
Also, in its 13th extraordinary session on December 5, 2020, the Assembly of the African Union directed Afreximbank and the AfCFTA secretariat to finalise, among others, work on the PAPSS.
The 35th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU further directed the AfCFTA and Afreximbank to deploy the system to cover the entire continent.
On January 13, 2022, PAPSS was officially launched in Accra, Ghana, making it available for use by the public.
Prior to the introduction of PAPSS, African businesses had to rely on foreign currencies like Pounds and Dollars to conduct domestic trade and carry out local transactions.
Apart from subjecting the economies of the continent to control of foreign currencies, the practice resulted in unnecessary delays and high cost of trade and transactions, particularly by small and medium enterprises.
