PAPSS Explained: How African Businesses Can Pay Each Other Without Dollars

PAPSS (the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System) lets a business in one African country pay a supplier in another African country straight in local currency, without converting into US dollars or routing through a correspondent bank abroad. As of October 2026, PAPSS connects central banks and more than 180 banks and payment providers across 22 African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania — but not yet South Africa. A payment that qualifies typically lands in the receiving account in about two minutes, instead of the three to seven business days a correspondent-bank transfer usually takes, and it cuts out the currency-conversion margin that makes cross-border payments in Africa some of the most expensive in the world.

Why this matters if you trade across African borders

Say you run an electronics shop in Nairobi and your supplier is in Lagos. The old way: your bank converts your KES into USD, wires it to a correspondent bank in the US or Europe, that bank converts USD into NGN, and your supplier's bank finally credits the naira — with a margin taken at every conversion, plus days of waiting. PAPSS removes the USD hop entirely. You pay in KES, your supplier is credited in NGN, and the two central banks net the difference between themselves once a day.

This isn't a consumer remittance app. It's built for banks, mobile money operators and licensed payment providers to settle business payments between each other — you still go through your own bank or wallet, you just benefit from the shorter route behind the scenes. If you're sending money for personal reasons rather than paying a supplier, our guide to cheapest ways to send money to Africa covers the remittance options instead.

How a PAPSS payment actually works

PAPSS itself lays out the process in six steps for anyone using it through a participating bank or wallet:

1. Check that your bank or mobile wallet is a PAPSS participant. Not every bank is signed up yet — ask directly, or check the live list at papss.com.
2. Confirm the receiving country is covered. PAPSS is being rolled out gradually; as of June 2026 it's live in 22 African countries.
3. Initiate the payment through your bank's mobile app, internet banking, or a branch visit.
4. At a branch, tell staff you want a PAPSS transfer — branches of participating banks are trained to process it as a distinct option, not a regular SWIFT transfer.
5. Follow the on-screen or staff instructions, entering the receiver's bank and account details and the amount in your own currency.
6. The transfer completes — funds are credited to the beneficiary in their local currency.

Behind the scenes, PAPSS validates the instruction, converts the value using its own reference rate, and forwards it to the receiving bank. Settlement between the banks' central banks happens through multilateral net settlement — effectively, each day Afreximbank (acting as settlement agent) and the central banks settle only the net difference in what their countries owe each other, which is what lets individual payments clear in minutes instead of days.

Which banks already support PAPSS

Coverage is real but uneven. Here's what PAPSS's own network coverage document (dated June 2026) shows for our focus countries:

That last line is the one worth sitting with if you're a South African business. South Africa isn't a small or disconnected economy — it's the opposite — yet none of its banks appear on PAPSS's own coverage document. If you run a business like a spaza shop in South Africa and buy stock from elsewhere on the continent, you're still on the old route (SWIFT, correspondent banking, or a licensed money transfer operator) until that changes. Ask your bank directly if this has moved since; PAPSS adds participants regularly.

For a Nigerian business on the receiving end — say you run a POS business in Nigeria and also import stock from Kenya or Ghana — Nigeria's 23 connected banks mean you've got a genuinely wide choice of where to bank for this.

What PAPSS saves you, in practical terms

The clearest independent number on why this matters: the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide report put the average cost of sending money to Sub-Saharan Africa at 8.45% of the amount sent in the third quarter of 2024, against a 6.6% global average — the most expensive region measured. That figure is for person-to-person remittances rather than PAPSS business transfers specifically, since PAPSS doesn't publish its own fee data (your bank sets whatever it charges for a PAPSS transfer). But the reason African cross-border payments cost so much is structural — every hop through a correspondent bank and every currency conversion adds its own margin — and PAPSS removes the biggest of those hops by letting the two local currencies trade directly.

In practice that means:

• No USD conversion spread on either end of the payment.
• No correspondent bank fee sitting in the middle of the chain.
• Minutes, not days, so you're not carrying exchange-rate risk while a payment is in transit.

It doesn't mean the transfer is free — your own bank still applies its margin on the exchange rate and may charge a transfer fee. Ask for both before you send anything significant.

What to watch out for

• Both sides need to be connected. If your supplier's bank isn't a PAPSS participant (direct or through the extended network), you can't use it for that payment — you'll fall back to the normal route.
• "Reachable" isn't the same as "can send." Several countries' extended-network banks can only receive PAPSS payments, not send them. Check which direction your bank actually supports.
• South Africa is the gap. If you trade with South African partners, don't assume PAPSS works there — as of June 2026 it doesn't, for any bank.
• The list keeps changing. New banks sign up every few months. Always confirm with your own bank rather than relying on an article or a PDF that might already be out of date.
• Your bank still sets the exchange rate. PAPSS handles the cross-border mechanics; your bank's margin on the conversion is a separate conversation worth having before you commit to a large payment.

Frequently asked questions

Is PAPSS available in South Africa?

No. As of PAPSS's own June 2026 network coverage document, South Africa has no banks listed as PAPSS participants and isn't reachable through its extended network either. South African businesses trading elsewhere on the continent still need to use SWIFT, correspondent banking, or a licensed money transfer operator.

How much does a PAPSS transfer cost?

PAPSS doesn't publish a standard fee — your own bank sets the charge and the exchange rate margin for a PAPSS transfer, the same way it would for any other transfer. Ask your bank for both figures before sending. What PAPSS removes is the extra cost of converting through US dollars and paying a correspondent bank along the way, which is usually the biggest part of a cross-border payment's cost.

Can I use PAPSS through M-Pesa or another mobile money wallet, not just a bank?

Mobile money operators and other licensed payment providers can connect to PAPSS as participants, not just banks. Kenya's reach has grown through Pesalink linking in SACCOs and telcos alongside banks, and other markets have mobile wallets in their extended networks. Ask your provider directly whether they're connected yet.

Is PAPSS the same thing as a SWIFT transfer?

No. SWIFT is a messaging network that typically routes African cross-border payments through correspondent banks and a hard currency like the US dollar. PAPSS settles directly between African central banks in local currencies, without that detour, which is why it's usually faster and avoids one layer of conversion costs.

How long does a PAPSS payment take?

PAPSS says a completed transfer between two participating banks typically clears in about two minutes. That's for the PAPSS leg itself — your own bank may still take longer to process the instruction on its end before it reaches PAPSS.

Which Kenyan banks support PAPSS right now?

As of June 2026, Access Bank, African Banking Corporation, KCB, Stanbic Bank and UBA are direct PAPSS participants in Kenya. Pesalink's integration, announced in February 2026, also opens receiving to more than 80 additional Kenyan banks, SACCOs, fintechs and telcos on its network. Confirm directly with your bank, since more are added regularly.