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Onafriq Partners with PAPSS to Launch Cross-Border Payment Services in Ghana

Africa’s financial landscape continues to evolve as digital payment solutions bridge traditional banking gaps and enhance cross-border transactions. A significant milestone in this journey emerged in June 2025, when Onafriq partnered with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to launch innovative cross-border payment services in Ghana.

This strategic collaboration represents more than a technological upgrade. It signals a fundamental shift toward making African borders less relevant in financial transactions, supporting the broader vision of economic integration across the continent. The partnership builds on Onafriq’s established position as Africa’s largest digital payments network, connecting nearly 961 million mobile wallets and 464 million bank accounts across 43 African markets.

Transforming Cross-Border Payments in Ghana

The service officially launched as a six-month pilot program approved by the Bank of Ghana, targeting outbound transactions initially. This strategic focus addresses a critical pain point for Ghanaian businesses and individuals who frequently send money across borders for trade, family support, and business operations.

Under this arrangement, banks partnering with PAPSS and Onafriq’s authorized fintech partners, mobile money service providers, and traditional financial institutions in Ghana can enable their customers to send and receive money directly into mobile wallets and bank accounts. This seamless integration eliminates the complex intermediary processes that traditionally made cross-border payments expensive and time-consuming.

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The pilot program specifically emphasizes small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and retail transactions, recognizing that these segments have been most affected by high transaction costs and opaque exchange rates. By focusing on these users, the partnership directly addresses financial inclusion challenges that have persisted across African payment systems.

Onafriq partners with PAPSS to launch cross-border payment services in Ghana, targeting SMEs with faster, cheaper transactions across Africa.
Mike Ogbalu III, CEO of PAPSS

How the Partnership Works

The collaboration leverages PAPSS’s infrastructure and regulatory coverage to provide Onafriq’s partners in Ghana with unprecedented access to cross-border payment capabilities. The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) serves as the settlement entity, ensuring trusted and timely settlement between parties.

This arrangement offers several advantages over traditional correspondent banking systems. Currently, over 80% of intra-African payments are routed through correspondent banks outside the continent and settled in foreign currencies such as the US dollar or euro, resulting in approximately $5 billion in annual transaction fees. The Onafriq-PAPSS partnership aims to significantly reduce these costs by enabling direct settlements within Africa.

The system processes transactions in real-time, allowing instant or near-instant transfers between different African countries. This speed represents a dramatic improvement over traditional banking systems, where cross-border transfers can take several days or weeks to complete.

Technical Infrastructure and Security

PAPSS operates as a centralized Financial Market Infrastructure that enables secure money flow across African borders while minimizing risk. The system works in collaboration with Africa’s central banks, providing a payment and settlement service to which commercial banks and licensed payment service providers can connect as participants.

The technical process involves several validation steps. When a payment instruction is issued, it travels through the originator’s central bank to PAPSS, which performs comprehensive validation checks before forwarding it to the beneficiary’s central bank and eventually to the recipient’s account. This multi-layered approach ensures transaction security while maintaining processing speed.

Settlement occurs through a sophisticated mechanism where PAPSS sends credit or debit instructions to both central banks involved in the transaction, with Afreximbank facilitating the hard currency settlement. This process eliminates the need for multiple currency conversions and reduces the associated costs and delays.

Broader Impact on African Financial Integration

The Ghana pilot represents a crucial step toward realizing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement’s (AfCFTA) vision of integrated continental commerce. PAPSS was specifically designed as a key instrument for AfCFTA implementation, with the African Union directing its deployment to cover the entire continent.

Since PAPSS’s official launch in Accra, Ghana, on January 13, 2022, ten African central banks have joined the system, including Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Djibouti. The platform forecasts that all of Africa’s central banks will participate by 2024, creating a truly continental payment infrastructure.

The partnership also connects with broader trends in African fintech innovation, where mobile money and digital payments are driving financial inclusion across the continent. Africa accounts for 70% of the world’s $1 trillion mobile money value, with mobile money accounts growing by 12% to 1.75 billion in 2023.

Market Context and Competitive Landscape

Onafriq’s partnership with PAPSS occurs within a rapidly evolving African fintech landscape. The company has established itself through strategic partnerships and acquisitions, including recent collaborations with Circle for stablecoin payments and various mobile money operators across the continent.

The partnership builds on Onafriq’s track record of successful cross-border payment initiatives. Previous collaborations include enabling M-PESA Ethiopia to boost remittances and facilitating cross-border transfers between Kenya and Ethiopia.

This collaborative approach reflects a broader industry trend where fintech companies, regulators, and financial service providers work together to drive change. As noted by industry experts, awareness and collaboration remain crucial challenges in advancing cross-border digital payments in Africa, making partnerships like Onafriq-PAPSS essential for sustainable growth.

Regulatory Environment and Government Support

Ghana’s regulatory framework has evolved to support digital financial services innovation. The Bank of Ghana established a fintech and innovation office in May 2020 to drive digitization and oversee mobile money operators, payment service providers, and other emerging payment forms.

The country’s Digital Financial Services Policy emphasizes implementing the Payment Systems and Services Act while issuing clarifying regulations to unlock the full potential of digital financial services. This enabling regulatory environment creates the foundation for innovations like the Onafriq-PAPSS partnership to thrive.

The regulatory support extends beyond Ghana. KCB Group’s integration of PAPSS demonstrates how established financial institutions are embracing the system to facilitate faster cross-border transactions and reduce foreign exchange dependencies.

Future Implications and Expansion Plans

The six-month pilot program will provide valuable data on transaction flows, user adoption, and foreign exchange performance. This information will inform future expansion decisions and help optimize the service for broader deployment across Africa.

Dare Okoudjou, Founder and CEO of Onafriq, emphasized the partnership’s transformative potential: “This service is not just about convenience; it brings people together and enhances economic activity between Ghana and the region. We are dedicated to making financial services accessible to everyone and are proud to be at the forefront of this transformation. African borders are starting to matter less; this is Onafriq’s goal”.

PAPSS CEO Mike Ogbalu III echoed this vision, stating: “Today marks a significant milestone in our journey towards a more integrated financial landscape in Africa. Our partnership with Onafriq represents a commitment to empowering SMEs and individuals by simplifying cross-border transactions. We believe this service will help reduce the liquidity burden on participants while fostering financial inclusion across the region”.

The partnership’s success could accelerate similar collaborations across other African markets, contributing to the continent’s financial integration goals. As cross-border payment solutionsbecome more sophisticated and accessible, they enable African businesses to participate more effectively in global trade while strengthening intra-continental commerce.

Conclusion

The Onafriq-PAPSS partnership in Ghana represents a significant advancement in African financial infrastructure development. By combining Onafriq’s extensive network reach with PAPSS’s regulatory framework and settlement capabilities, the collaboration addresses longstanding challenges in cross-border payments while supporting broader economic integration objectives.

As the pilot program progresses, its outcomes will likely influence similar initiatives across Africa, contributing to the continent’s vision of seamless financial connectivity. The partnership demonstrates how strategic collaboration between fintech innovators and financial market infrastructure can create transformative solutions that benefit businesses, individuals, and the broader economy.

The success of this initiative could serve as a model for other African markets, accelerating the development of integrated payment systems that make geographical borders increasingly irrelevant in financial transactions. This alignment with AfCFTA objectives positions the partnership as a crucial contributor to Africa’s economic transformation agenda.


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The Analyst

The Analyst delivers in-depth, data-driven insights on technology, industry trends, and digital innovation, breaking down complex topics for a clearer understanding. Reach out: Mail@Tech-ish.com

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