Ethiopia Joins PAPSS to Expand Cross-Border Payments

Ethiopia has formally joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), opening a route for its financial institutions to connect with a cross-border payments network built around African currencies. The National Bank of Ethiopia and PAPSS announced the move in Addis Ababa on October 15, alongside plans to hold the second PAPSS COWRY payments conference in the city next month.

For businesses trading across Africa, the appeal is straightforward. Paying a supplier in another African country often means navigating foreign-exchange conversion, correspondent banks and delays that make a regional transaction feel more complicated than it should. PAPSS is designed to give participating institutions a way to move and settle those payments within an African network. Ethiopia’s entry broadens that network, although the announcement does not mean every bank account in the country can use it immediately.

The joint announcement distributed by Afreximbank says Ethiopian financial institutions will be able to connect to PAPSS and participate in cross-border payments with institutions elsewhere on the continent. Governor Eyob Tekalign and PAPSS chief executive Mike Ogbalu III announced the move during the Ethiopia Finance Forum. They did not provide a timetable for each bank’s technical integration or a list of Ethiopian institutions already offering the service to customers.

That distinction matters. A central bank joining establishes the framework, but usable payment corridors depend on banks and other licensed providers being connected, as well as on local rules, liquidity and customer-facing rollout. Businesses should therefore check with their own provider before assuming a particular transfer route is available. PAPSS’s connection guidance explains the role of central banks and participating institutions in bringing the system into use.

PAPSS was developed under the auspices of Afreximbank, the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat. Its ambition is to make intra-African trade less dependent on routing payments through foreign intermediaries. Reuters reported that the system now operates in more than 15 countries and connects over 150 commercial banks. Those figures describe the broader network, not the number of Ethiopian banks ready to process PAPSS transfers today.

Ethiopia is a large economy with an evolving digital-payments market. Bringing its financial institutions onto a continental rail could eventually make transactions with African partners simpler for exporters, importers and service businesses. The practical test will be whether local banks integrate quickly, price transfers competitively and give customers a clear way to send and receive money.

Other countries have been expanding their PAPSS participation. TechBooky previously covered the network’s growth among Nigerian banks. Ethiopia’s entry adds another major market to that continental effort, but its economic value will be measured in real payment volume and reliable access rather than membership alone.

The two organisations also said Addis Ababa will host PAPSS COWRY 2026 on November 26 and 27 at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel. The event, co-hosted by PAPSS and the National Bank of Ethiopia, is intended to bring together payment-system leaders to discuss how Africa can scale its own infrastructure and connect it to the wider world. For Ethiopia, it will be an early chance to explain how its new PAPSS membership will move from announcement to everyday use.