When the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System launched in January 2022, it aimed to address one of Africa’s oldest trade problems. Moving money across African borders was often slow, costly and unnecessarily complicated. Even when both parties were on the continent, payments often passed through banks in Europe or the United States.
That model raised costs at every stage. It forced banks and businesses to rely on scarce hard currency. It also lengthened settlement times and increased exchange-rate losses. PAPSS was built to change that. The platform allows payments to move directly in local currencies, without the usual detour through the dollar or euro.
Four years later, the system is beginning to gain real ground. PAPSS now connects 19 countries and more than 160 commercial banks. Reporting also says the network includes more than 14 or 15 national switches. That growth suggests the platform is moving beyond concept and becoming a real continental infrastructure.
The progress matters because cross-border transfers in Africa remain expensive. The World Bank’s remittance database shows that global remittance costs were about 6.49% in early 2025. By contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa remained the costliest region. The regional analysis placed those costs at roughly 8.45% to 8.78%, far above the United Nations target of 3%.
Nigeria has become one of the most important markets for PAPSS. That is partly because of its size. It is also because Nigeria already has strong domestic payment rails. Systems led by NIBSS and real-time transfer tools such as NIP have created conditions for cross-border payment tools to grow faster.
Speaking to TechCabal in January, PAPSS communications head Papa Samba Thiongane said almost all banks in Nigeria were connected. He also said many had already added PAPSS to their mobile applications. That is important because adoption depends on more than institutional sign-up. Customers also need to find the service easily in the places where they already transact.
The Nigerian story also intersects with a larger continental shift. Digital public infrastructure is beginning to reshape payments, identity and access across Africa. In markets such as Nigeria, real-time domestic transfer systems are creating the foundation for broader financial interoperability. That could eventually make cross-border transfers feel far more normal than they do today. This is an inference based on the connection between domestic payment rails and cross-border systems.
PAPSS is also pushing beyond simple transfer rails. In 2025, Afreximbank, PAPSS and Mercury Payment Services launched PAPSSCARD. The system also introduced the Pan-African Currency Marketplace (PACM). That platform aims to support direct exchange between African currencies without routing transactions through external hard currencies. Together, these efforts show a bigger ambition. PAPSS aims to serve as a foundation for a more integrated African financial system.
Despite the progress, everyday use still falls short of the promise. TechCabal reported this week that some users continue to face delays, transaction limits and low awareness. Those problems remain visible even in important corridors such as Nigeria and Ghana.
One Ghana-based user told the publication that transfers to Nigeria had become more cumbersome. Limits had been introduced on how much could be sent at one time. Additional requirements regarding proof of funds and the transfer purpose also increased the burden. Another user said he opened an Ecobank account specifically to receive money from Nigerian clients. That workaround points to ongoing gaps between institutions that are supposed to interoperate more smoothly.
These complaints do not mean PAPSS has failed. They do show how hard it is to build a continental payment system. Regulation, risk checks, mobile money integration and banking procedures all shape the user experience. When those layers move at different speeds, the platform can appear more advanced on paper than in practice. This is an inference drawn from reported user experiences and the complexity of multi-country payment networks.
There are, however, signs of forward movement. In June 2025, the Bank of Ghana approved a six-month pilot involving Onafriq and PAPSS. The project allowed banks, fintechs and mobile money operators to send and receive cross-border payments directly into wallets and bank accounts.
That effort expanded in February 2026. Onafriq and PAPSS then launched a bi-directional payment corridor between Nigeria and Ghana. The partners described it as Africa’s first wallet-based outbound payment pilot from Nigeria. It allows users to send money in naira and receive it in cedis, without using the dollar as an intermediary.
That development matters because Africa’s payment ecosystem is split between banks and mobile money. If PAPSS is to become truly continental, it must work across both systems. The Nigeria-Ghana pilot suggests that this integration is beginning to take shape.
PAPSS executives say the next phase will focus on deeper adoption and broader expansion. Francophone markets and other key economies are part of that plan. Africa does not only need the payment infrastructure that exists. It needs infrastructure that people use, trust and understand. Four years after launch, PAPSS is closer to that goal. Its real success, though, will depend on whether cross-border African payments can finally start to feel ordinary.
