Cross border payments are finally shifting: What PAPSS expansion means for African SMEs.

African businesses have spent decades paying a premium to trade with each other. Cross border payments have been slow, expensive, and overly dependent on correspondent banking and hard currency routing. PAPSS, the Pan African Payment and Settlement System, was created to change that by enabling cross border payments and settlement in local currencies across participating countries.

Reuters reported that PAPSS planned to launch an Africa Currency Marketplace in 2025, designed to enable direct exchange between African currencies and reduce reliance on intermediary currencies like the US dollar. The logic is straightforward: if SMEs can pay and get paid across borders without multiple conversions and delays, working capital improves and trade becomes less risky.

The Guardian has also described PAPSS as a platform intended to make instant, low cost local currency transfers possible across African markets, while noting challenges that still exist, including infrastructure gaps, currency volatility, and the coordination required to make a network solution feel ubiquitous.

For SMEs, “payments shifting” is not a slogan. It is a potential productivity gain. Faster settlement means fewer days chasing cash. Lower fees improve margins, especially for traders and exporters operating on thin spreads. Better traceability can strengthen credit profiles, since clean transaction histories make it easier to access finance.

But the adoption curve matters. Networks become valuable when enough banks, fintechs, and merchants connect. That is why founders should treat PAPSS as part of a broader treasury strategy, not as a single magic switch. The best operators will keep optionality, using multiple rails while moving customers and suppliers toward cheaper settlement options when available.

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Advice for African founders and entrepreneurs: design your payments like a CFO. Standardise invoicing, pricing, and collections terms. Build multi currency thinking into your business early. When payment rails improve, the most prepared SMEs will scale across borders fastest.