Kenya is strengthening its role as a financial hub in East Africa by connecting Pesalink, its national instant payment system, to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). This interconnection now enables 24-hour cross-border payments in local currencies, reducing costs and delays and promoting the development of intra-African trade under the auspices of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Afreximbank is strengthening its key role in the continent’s financial integration. In Kenya, the national payment system, Pesalink, is now interconnected with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) developed by Afreximbank, following the signing of a partnership agreement on February 26, 2026, in Nairobi between Pesalink’s CEO, Gituku Kirika, and PAPSS’s CEO, Mike Ogbalu III. More than 80 Kenyan financial institutions are now connected to a continental network encompassing over 160 African banks and service providers.
A major challenge facing the intercontinental market is payment methods. The current situation meant that making a payment from one country to another always required going through intermediary banks. This took two to three days, and the cost of sending the money, the transfer fees, were very high.
Teddy Kaberuka, Economist
This collaboration should help reduce costs, speed up settlements, and facilitate transactions for individuals, SMEs, and businesses engaged in regional trade. With this development, Kenya strengthens its position as a financial hub in East Africa and contributes to the emergence of an integrated continental payment system.
As it’s a network connecting various African banks and financial institutions, the system also takes African realities into account. It allows for connections to even the most remote areas that use payment methods like mobile money transfer.
Teddy Kaberuka, Economist
It should be noted that this connection also aims to stimulate intra-African trade within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which currently represents only about 15% of the continent’s trade a still low level that makes reducing transaction costs and monetary barriers essential to boosting regional trade, according to experts.
