The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), in partnership with African deep-tech firm Interstellar, has launched the PAPSS African Currency Marketplace (PACM), a new financial market infrastructure designed to address one of the continent’s most persistent economic challenges: currency inconvertibility.
Announced during the 2025 Afreximbank Annual Meeting held in Abuja from June 25 to 28, PACM enables real-time, direct exchange of African currencies across borders, without the need to route transactions through hard currencies like the U.S. dollar. The system is expected to significantly reduce foreign exchange costs, eliminate settlement delays, and support Africa’s long-term ambition for financial sovereignty.
“PAPSS African Currency Marketplace is fully transparent, order book-driven, and operates with trusted counterparties, strictly adhering to local regulatory frameworks and global best practices,” said Mike Ogbalu III, CEO of PAPSS. “By creating a single, continent-wide liquidity pool, PACM serves as a powerful liquidity engine for intra-African commerce.”
The launch marks a major evolution for PAPSS, which was officially introduced in 2022. Since then, PAPSS has enabled real-time cross-border payments in 17 countries, connected 14 national switches, and linked over 150 commercial banks. Though these payment rails laid important groundwork, the lack of convertibility among Africa’s 41 currencies remained a significant bottleneck, costing the continent an estimated $5 billion annually in fees, delays, and lost opportunities.
“We soon realised that solving for payments alone was not enough,” said Ogbalu. “Corporations, airlines, reinsurance firms, and multinationals operating across Africa still faced a persistent hurdle: trapped capital, arising from limited currency convertibility and overreliance on hard currencies.”
According to PAPSS, more than $2 billion is currently trapped in African markets due to currency restrictions and exchange rate volatility, funds that airlines, for instance, are unable to repatriate. PACM is positioned as a solution to this, allowing companies to exchange currencies like the Nigerian Naira for the Kenyan Shilling directly, bypassing the dollar and eliminating traditional barriers.
The PACM platform is built on Interstellar’s enterprise-grade, blockchain-agnostic infrastructure, which supports permissioned blockchain deployment, institutional-grade security, and near-instant settlement speeds.
“This is not just about technology, it is about fulfilling a continental vision,” said Ernest Mbenkum, Founder and CEO of Interstellar. “PAPSS African Currency Marketplace was built from the ground up to serve Africa’s specific needs. PAPSS and Interstellar are not just collaborators, we are co-architects of a new financial future, aligned in purpose and committed to transformation.”
“African currencies deserve a better place in the world. With this marketplace, your local currency is no longer just a medium of exchange, it becomes a vehicle of opportunity,” Mbenkum added. “We’re building a future where Africa no longer needs to wait for foreign rails to move value. Our infrastructure will power Africa’s financial renaissance.”
During its pilot phase, more than 80 African corporates traded across 12 currency pairs, with all transactions settled in local currencies. Participants included ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company), Access View Africa, and airlines such as Kenya Airways. The system allows seamless peer-to-peer transactions, providing a reliable alternative to hard currency conversion and enabling greater liquidity in local financial markets.
“The PAPSS African Currency Marketplace gives us the power to transform trade dramatically, bringing us to trade with each other with a major benefit that we can now accept each other’s currency,” said Haytham El Maayergi, Executive Vice President of Afreximbank.
Following early success, PAPSS has reported interest from institutions outside the continent seeking to join the ecosystem.
“This demand proves the value of what we’ve built,” said Ogbalu.
The platform is now open to eligible corporations, financial institutions, and market participants across the continent. With more than 150 banks already connected through PAPSS and a growing user base, the African Currency Marketplace is seen as a key step toward deepening the financial integration needed to fully realise the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“Africa will not rise by ideas. Africa will rise by actions,” El Maayergi concluded.
