Pan African Payment and Settlement System and African Securities Exchange Association  for cross-border payment of Stock Exchanges

The Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and the African Securities Exchange Association (ASEA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to reinforce collaboration and cooperation in selling cross-border funds of Capital Markets infrastructure in Africa.

For a very long time, buyers doing enterprise in Africa have struggled with making and settling cross-border funds. Payments take a very long time to finish, are costly for the reason that present surroundings necessitates the use of correspondent banks outdoors of the continent, and are accomplished in foreign currency echange (USD or Euro). Because of this, African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat developed PAPSS, which allows instantaneous cross-border payment in native forex.

Commenting on the signing, the Chief Executive Officer of PAPSS, Mr. Mike Ogbalu III, mentioned: “PAPSS helps all kinds of use instances, together with cross-border retail and commerce transactions for people and companies and cross-border investments with the African Stock Exchanges. Consequently, working with ASEA, which pioneered the AELP with cross-border securities buying and selling as a central tenet, is a big step in direction of the rollout of PAPSS all through the continent.

Through the umbrella of ASEA, with 9 exchanges and a mixed market capitalization of $1.5 trillion, PAPSS supplies a chance because the payment system to additional improve the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP), a flagship venture of ASEA to facilitate cross-border buying and selling of securities in Africa. PAPSS has began a interval of quick deployment of its system all through all African nations, having already gone reside within the nations comprising the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), specifically Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, and Guinea. As a end result, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Djibouti have lately joined the community and will quickly be operational. This partnership with ASEA may also facilitate the deployment of PAPSS throughout the ASEA member nations.

“This partnership is a demonstration of our commitment to driving trade flows and economic growth in Africa. Through our collaboration, we aim to create a reliable and efficient payment system that will enable investors to easily trade across different stock exchanges on the continent. Our immediate task is to create a workforce between PAPSS and ASEA as soon as possible to identify ways to facilitate the transfer of funds across ASEA member African Stock Exchanges. To that end, I’d like to extend an invitation to the relevant capital markets stakeholders to join us in this ground-breaking venture for the African business and investment communities.”

The President of ASEA and Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Stock Exchange, Mr Thapelo Tsheole, mentioned: “We are delighted to partner with PAPSS on this important initiative. Our capital markets integration initiative through the AELP will play a critical role in deepening Africa’s capital markets and promoting cross-border investment. PAPSS’s expertise in payment settlement will be instrumental in the cross-border transfer of funds among the participating exchanges.”

PAPSS is unwavering in its dedication to fostering the expansion of a thriving payment ecosystem and encouraging the event of new options for the financial development of the African continent and its folks.

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