Time to drop the ‘Africa is risk’ tag hindering business transactions

Last week’s call by President William Ruto for African nations to embrace the continent’s own clearing system amounts to a critical piece of African leadership, in transforming payments from one African country to another that have long been slow, frequently lost, and cost an extra $5 billion a year to route through the US or Europe.

While the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) was launched in January 2022, 18 months later, it has been joined by just nine central banks, 40 commercial banks and four switches, according to wearetech.africa, rendering it moribund until more climb aboard.