• Onafriq and PAPSS launched a pilot for local-currency payments from Nigeria to Ghana.

• The partnership bypasses the dollar to reduce costs and speed up cross-border trade.

• The initiative supports AfCFTA implementation and intra-African commerce growth.

On February 2, Onafriq Nigeria Payments, a fintech licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, announced a partnership with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. The partnership pilots a service that allows users to send money from a wallet or bank account in Nigeria to a beneficiary in Ghana. The initiative aims to facilitate payments between the two countries in local currencies without using the dollar in order to support intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.

PAPSS, which AfCFTA authorities adopted as a reference platform for implementation, operates as a shared infrastructure that routes and settles payments between African banks, fintechs and mobile money operators. The platform offers an alternative to traditional correspondent banking networks, which often impose higher costs and longer settlement times for cross-border payments. By relying on this platform, Onafriq converts connected mobile wallets and bank accounts into access points to a pan-African real-time payment network.

Today, a small or medium-sized enterprise that imports from Ghana to Nigeria or exports in the opposite direction typically uses international banking channels. These channels impose multiple layers of fees, processing delays that stretch over several days, and near-systematic conversion through the dollar or the euro. These constraints weigh more heavily on small firms, which face limited capacity to absorb foreign exchange costs and payment delays.

The Onafriq–PAPSS pilot offers near-instant local-currency payments between Nigeria and Ghana through familiar wallet and banking application interfaces. Mxolisi Msutwana, managing director for Anglophone West Africa at Onafriq, said: “This is how we open bidirectional trade corridors, reduce costs for businesses and empower African enterprises to trade confidently in their own currency. The vision is continental, but it starts with concrete actions like this.”

Ositadimma Ugwu, chief information officer at PAPSS, added: “With this move, we challenge this mindset by enabling Nigerians to send money to their neighbors as easily as they send a text message.”

A Key Component of AfCFTA Implementation

According to Afreximbank’s Africa Trade Report 2025, intra-African trade reached $220.3 billion in 2024, representing a 12.4% increase from 2023. The figure remains below the estimated potential of $296.3 billion. The report states that AfCFTA can help close this gap if countries also strengthen financial infrastructure. In this context, solutions such as PAPSS, combined with private mass-payment networks, represent practical tools to convert trade agreements into real transactions and support AfCFTA implementation.

“The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System reduces dependence on foreign currencies and improves the efficiency of intra-African trade, while national digital payment ecosystems expand rapidly and generate billions of dollars in annual revenues,” Afreximbank said in the report.

This article was initially published in French by Melchior Koba

Adapted in English by Ange J.A de BERRY QUENUM