The Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECAF), Wamkele Mene, announces this year the Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), specially developed for intra-African trade and currently being tested in some West African countries. The tool should be operational “by the end of 2021"

In an interview with New China, Wamkele Mene announces that the piloting of PAPSS in six West African countries is going very well and by the end of the year, it will be fully deployed. Once this piloting is completed, PAPSS will facilitate trade across the continent, and companies trading under the ZLECAF will be able to do so on the cost-effective platform. According to him, this platform is being developed in collaboration with the African Export-Import Bank to facilitate payments and formalize the enormous informal cross-border business activities on the continent. The PAPSS “will also offer alternatives to current, expensive and time-consuming banking relationships, in order to facilitate trade and other economic activities between African countries through a simple, inexpensive and risk-controlled payment, clearing and settlement system,” he said. The SG of the African Continental Free Trade Area is optimistic that other countries will complete their agreements to join South Africa, Kenya and Egypt, where trade has already begun.