All About Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS)

To improve inter-Africa transfers and payments, banks in African countries that have enrolled in the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). This allows, for instance, individuals, businesses, and traders to seamlessly send and receive money in their local currencies across Africa. It allows them to pay for goods and services across Africa with their local currency.
PAPSS addresses the historic challenges of making payments across African borders, adding value through a common African market infrastructure for all stakeholders, from governments, banks and payment providers to corporates, small enterprises and individuals.
The cross-border, financial market infrastructure enabling payment transactions across Africa is currently avaible in all African countries where partner banks operate.
Per the PAPSS, you do not need to convert your local currency into another African currency before you can make payment. The introduction of PAPSS means people do not need to worry about currency conversions to trade in Africa.
To use the service, contact your bank and compelte the initial details to make use of the service.
Which banks use PAPSS in Africa?
Banks in Ghana that use PAPSS
- GCB
- UBA
- PRUDENTIAL BANK
- CBG
- UMB
- GTBANK
- SN BANK
- OMNIBSIC BANK
- ZENITH BANK
- BANK OF AFRICA – BOA
- STANBIC BANK
- FBNBANK
- CALBANK
- FIRST ATLANTIC BANK
- ABSA BANK
- FIDELITY BANK
- ACCESS BANK
- ECOBANK
- AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT BANK
- NATIONAL INVESTMENT BANK
Banks in Nigeria that use PAPSS
FIRST BANK
UBA
STANBIC IBTC
SN BANK
LOTUS BANK
FIDELITY BANK
ECOBANK
ZENITH BANK
HERITAGE BANK
LIBERIA
IBL
SIB
ECOBANK
SN BANK
UBA
Banks in Gambia that use PAPSS
BLOOMBANK
SN BANK
FIRST BANK
GTBANK
VISTA BANK
ACCESS BANK
COMING UP SOON
GUINEA
SN BANK
UBA
VISTA BANK
ACCESS BANK
CORIS BANK
Banks in Sierra Leone that use PAPSS
SN BANK
UBA
ACCESS BANK
FIRST BANK
SIERRA LEONE COMMERCIAL BANK
VISTA BANK
GTBANK
Benefits
- Instant/near instant payments of cross-border transactions without the hassle of currency conversion
- Improved working capital through payment certainty and faster transactions
- Access to various payment facilitating options through a growing network of financial intermediaries
The PAPSS allows users to send and receive money instantly across Africa.
It also permits users of the service to transfer any amount they want to send or pay to another recipient in another country.
The absence of hidden fees and charges makes the PAPSS worth using.
How PAPSS works
In order to enable instant payments across African borders in local currency, PAPSS supports three core processes: instant payment, pre-funding and net settlement.
How instant payments work
With Instant payment, participants no longer need to convert local currencies into hard currencies, which then entailed the funds leaving Africa to be converted before being sent back again to the beneficiary bank, adding days to the transaction time. In addition, compliance, legal and sanctions checks are performed instantly within the system. Near-instant payments process within 120 seconds.
How pre-funding works under the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS)
Due to the speed of the real-time payment process, PAPSS needs to guarantee that funds are available to complete the originator’s transaction before effecting the movement of debits and credits between participants’ accounts. Participants must, therefore, agree to a pre-funding arrangement.
Direct Participants integrate directly with PAPSS and the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems of central banks in the pre-funding process. Participants without an RTGS account – Indirect Participants – are able to fund or defund their clearing accounts on PAPSS with the aid of a Direct Participant providing the required liquidity.
Notifications are carried via the ISO 20022 messaging standard, notifying PAPSS, the Participants and RTGS of the status of every stage of the transaction.
How settlement works
PAPSS needs to ensure prompt settlement within 24 hours. Net settlement across all participating central banks occurs at the same time – 11.00 UTC – each day.
As with the pre-funding process, notifications are carried via an ISO 20022 messaging system, notifying PAPSS, the Participants and RTGS of the status of every stage of the transaction.
Key Features of PAPSS Instant Payment
- Instant and irrevocable credits to customer accounts
- Immediate confirmation to both originator and beneficiary
- Service availability 24/7, 365 days a year
- ISO 20022 global message standard allowing interoperability, large data sets and rich data for payment and remittance information
- Secure infrastructure, incorporating cyber-security and payment fraud systems underpinned by behavioural analytics and machine learning capabilities.