For decades, moving money across African borders has meant routing payments through London or New York, losing 7-8% of the value to fees, and waiting days for settlement. Two African countries conducted business in someone else’s currency on someone else’s infrastructure.
That model is now under direct pressure. According to the AfricaNenda Foundation’s SIIPS 2025 report, 36 instant payment systems are now live across 31 African countries, processing 64 billion transactions worth nearly US$2 trillion in 2024. A Mastercard-commissioned report projects Africa’s digital payments economy will reach US$1.5 trillion by 2030.
The most ambitious attempt to connect these domestic rails into a continental network is the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), launched in 2022 by Afreximbank, in partnership with the African Union and the AfCFTA Secretariat. PAPSS has been quietly rewriting how money moves across 54 economies, long divided by currency fragmentation.
That is the central tension confronting the 2026 Finance Transformation Africa summit, taking place on 30 September to 1 October 2026 at The Maslow Hotel in Sandton. The agenda’s message is unambiguous: building a genuinely unified African market requires more than connecting payment rails. It requires open finance, harmonised digital identity, and the political will to open legacy cores.
The Digital Rail Taking Flight
PAPSS eliminates the friction that has historically made intra-African payments slow and expensive. Instead of converting naira into US dollars and then into Kenyan shillings, transactions are settled directly between African financial institutions. According to PAPSS CEO Mike Ogbalu III: “We are creating a system where payments can be made and received in local currencies, instantly, without reliance on third-party currencies.”
As of early 2026, PAPSS is connecting over 19 central banks and more than 150 commercial banks, alongside the 2025 launch of the Pan-African Currency Marketplace (PACM) and PAPSSCard. Early data suggests cost savings of up to 27% for end users, with some banks reporting transaction volume growth of over 1,000% after integrating.
Regional Momentum
In Ethiopia, national switch EthSwitch announced that its instant payment platform, EthioPay-IPS, processed more than one million transactions in a single day, handling over five billion Birr. Yilebes Addis, CEO of EthSwitch, said: “Reaching one million EthioPay-IPS transactions in a single day marks a significant milestone for the country’s payments ecosystem.”
Across the continent, 36 countries now have live instant payment systems. But having a system and having a functioning, interoperable ecosystem are different things. The gap between the two is where the work now sits.
The Open Banking Layer
Integration is not merely a payments problem. Open banking (the secure sharing of customer financial data via APIs) is the companion infrastructure that makes embedded lending, personalised credit scoring and cross-border services possible. After years of regulatory deliberation, 2026 is the year African open banking finally moves from policy to production.
In South Africa, the SARB published a working paper in March 2026 making the case for open banking, and is drafting legislation to revamp the national payments ecosystem. In Nigeria, the CBN’s open banking phased go-live is scheduled to roll out through mid-2026, alongside a Regulatory Passporting Programme seeking mutual licence recognition with Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
The Remaining Challenges
Regulatory fragmentation remains stubborn. As Austin Okpagu, country director for Verto in Nigeria, notes: “The primary risk is regulatory protectionism, with individual central banks imposing restrictive data localisation or liquidity-trapping policies to defend their local currencies.” Without harmonised AML, digital identity and licence passporting, compliance friction will keep costs high.
Afreximbank underwrites PAPSS with liquidity support, ensuring transactions can settle even across markets with uneven currency depth. As Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, puts it: “Payments are the backbone of trade. If you cannot move money efficiently across borders, you cannot fully unlock the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area.”
With 36 instant payment systems live, 64 billion transactions processed, and PAPSS now connecting 19 central banks and over 150 commercial banks, the infrastructure is being rebuilt. The question is no longer whether—but how fast.
Finance Transformation Africa 2026 takes place on 30 September to 1 October 2026.at The Maslow Hotel in Sandton. Early bird registration is priced at R9,999. A corporate accommodation rate is available using block code SERAPHBLOCK.
ABOUT FTA 2026
Finance Transformation Africa 2026 takes place on 30 September – 1 October 2026 The Maslow Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, bringing together C‑suite executives, regulators, innovators and technology providers from banking, insurance, payments, lending and wealth. The event comprises one flagship summit and four co‑located streams – Wealth Transformation Africa, Insurance Transformation Africa, the Future of Payments Summit, and Lending Transformation Africa – featuring plenary keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats, case studies, workshops and curated networking sessions. Topics on the agenda include digital modernisation and infrastructure, open finance and interoperability, AI and predictive intelligence, cyber resilience, fraud prevention, cloud migration, embedded finance, operational efficiency, and customer experience.
