The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), in collaboration with Interstellar, a leading African deep-tech firm, has unveiled the PAPSS African Currency Marketplace (PACM), a transformative financial market infrastructure (FMI) designed to eliminate a $5 billion trade bottleneck.
Announced on the sidelines of the 2025 Afreximbank Annual Meeting (AAM2025) in Abuja from June 25 to 28, this initiative marks a significant step toward financial sovereignty and seamless intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
For decades, Africa’s 41 currencies and fragmented financial systems have created significant barriers to cross-border commerce. Businesses have relied on external “hard” currencies like the US dollar or euro for foreign exchange, incurring an estimated $5 billion annually in fees, delays, and opportunity costs.
This “hard and costly currency bottleneck” has stifled intra-African trade, which accounted for only 14.4% of Africa’s formal trade in 2024, despite a 12.4% year-on-year increase to $220.3 billion, according to Afreximbank’s African Trade Report 2025.
The PAPSS African Currency Marketplace addresses this challenge by enabling direct, peer-to-peer exchange of African currencies without reliance on foreign intermediaries.
Built on Interstellar’s blockchain-agnostic, enterprise-grade STARGATE platform, PACM offers a transparent, order book-driven marketplace that ensures near-instant settlement, institutional-grade security, and compliance with local regulations. This allows businesses to trade in local currencies, reducing costs, unlocking trapped capital, and supporting AfCFTA’s vision of a self-reliant African economy.
“PAPSS African Currency Marketplace is fully transparent, order book-driven, and operates with trusted counterparties, strictly adhering to local regulatory frameworks and global best practices,” said Mike Ogbalu III, CEO of PAPSS. “By creating a single, continent-wide liquidity pool, PACM serves as a powerful liquidity engine for intra-African commerce.”
Since its launch in 2022, PAPSS has facilitated real-time cross-border payments across 17 countries, connecting 14 national switches and over 150 commercial banks, establishing itself as the backbone of AfCFTA’s financial infrastructure.
The PACM addresses a critical issue: trapped capital. For example, currency inconvertibility and exchange restrictions lock in over $2 billion in airline revenues in African countries.
“Corporations, airlines, reinsurance firms, and multinationals operating across Africa still faced a persistent hurdle: trapped capital, arising from limited currency convertibility and overreliance on hard currencies,” Ogbalu explained.
With PACM, businesses like Kenya Airways can now exchange Nigerian Naira for Kenyan Shillings directly, bypassing third-party currencies and multi-week settlement delays.
Interstellar’s blockchain technology, delivered via the Bantu network, underpins this innovation.
“This is not just about technology; it is about fulfilling a continental vision,” said Ernest Mbenkum, founder and CEO of Interstellar. “African currencies deserve a better place in the world. With this marketplace, your local currency is no longer just a medium of exchange; it becomes a vehicle of opportunity.”
Interstellar’s infrastructure supports up to 43 African currencies and plans to integrate regulated stablecoins, such as Nigeria’s cNGN, enhancing the platform’s flexibility.
What the PAPSS African Currency Marketplace means for businesses on the continent
The impact is already evident. During its pilot phase, over 80 African corporates transacted across 12 currency pairs, with early adopters like ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company) and Access View Africa praising the platform’s efficiency.
“This is a dream come true,” noted Access View Africa, highlighting the marketplace’s ability to streamline cross-border transactions. The platform’s success has also attracted interest from institutions outside Africa, signalling its global relevance.
Haytham El Maayergi, Executive Vice President of Afreximbank’s Global Trade Bank, emphasised the transformative potential:
“The PAPSS African Currency Marketplace gives us the power to transform trade dramatically, bringing us to trade with each other with a major benefit that we can now accept each other’s currency. Africa will not rise by ideas. Africa will rise by actions.”
For businesses, PACM offers significant advantages. By eliminating the need for hard currency intermediaries, it reduces transaction costs, which the World Bank notes average 8.45% for remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa, sometimes spiking to 20%. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and informal traders, who often rely on costly cash-based systems, stand to benefit from digitised, low-cost transactions.
The platform also supports financial inclusion by levelling the playing field for smaller merchants and fintechs excluded from global payment networks.
The launch of PACM coincides with other initiatives, such as the PAPSSCARD, Africa’s first pan-African payment card, unveiled during AAM2025. Developed with Mercury Payment Services, PAPSSCARD enables fast, secure, and affordable retail transactions across borders, further reducing reliance on global networks like Visa or Mastercard.
“PAPSSCARD empowers us to move money swiftly, securely, and affordably across borders,” said Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah, highlighting its alignment with AfCFTA goals.
Despite its promise, challenges remain. Regulatory hurdles and infrastructure gaps could slow adoption, particularly at the grassroots level. However, with Morocco recently joining as the 17th member country and ongoing pilots like the Ghana-based cross-border payment service with Onafriq, PAPSS is gaining momentum.
The PAPSS African Currency Marketplace is now open to eligible corporations, financial institutions, and market participants across Africa.
As it scales, it has the potential to reshape the continent’s financial landscape, fostering economic resilience and unlocking the full potential of intra-African trade.
For businesses, this means lower costs, faster settlements, and a stronger, more integrated African economy.
Technext Newsletter
Get the best of Africa’s daily tech to your inbox – first thing every morning.
Join the community now!
