Continental currency exchange platform on cards

THE Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) is working on creating a currency exchange platform to allow trade between different currencies on the continent.

The idea is in line with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), an initiative that seeks to enhance inter-trade between member states. It also feeds into African Union ‘Agenda 2063: towards the Africa we want’.

Speaking yesterday at the Smart Africa investment forum, a pre-conference event ahead of the Transform Africa Summit that kicks off this morning, PAPSS deputy chief executive officer, Mr John Bosco Sebabi bemoaned Africa’s expensive corridors, which he said call for investment in access, speed and digital development.

“As Africa we need to connect to each other. Trade in Africa today is not balanced and currencies are not exchanging, which is why Settlement is done in United States dollars.

“We are working to create an exchange mechanism so that our currencies can trade with each other.

This is a process and for now, we have to go through an exchange mechanism,” he said.

Mr Sebabi said people connecting between countries make informal currency exchanges at borders thereby fuelling criminal activity, promote parallel market and sometimes citizens are robbed of their hard-earned money.

He said there is a need to improve digital speed network and connectivity to match the fast economic growth on the continent.

PAPSS is a cross-border, financial market infrastructure enabling payment transactions across Africa.

There are concerns over lack of harmonisation of regulation in Africa and there is a need to break the barriers.

Minister of Technology and Science in Zambia, Mr Felix Mutati said: “As Africa we have a lot of work to do and embrace the values of Ubuntu to be able to grow together”.

Smart Africa director of digital transformation and services Dr Ralph Oyini Mbouma said Africans still prefer hard cash transactions to digital money.

“In Africa people still prefer cash to digital payments hence the need for strategic partnerships for payment settlements,” he said. — @ncubeleon