New African currency marketplace launched

By Staff Writer

Leaders from PAPSS, Interstellar, and Afreximbank have praised the landmark signing of the African Currency Marketplace agreement at AAM2025 in Abuja that marks a bold step toward financial sovereignty and seamless intra-African trade.

The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS have partnered with deep-tech firm Interstellar to launch African Currency Marketplace aimed at unlocking the continent’s $5 billion trade bottleneck.

The revolutionary platform, set to fuel intra-African trade, allows direct exchange of African currencies, cutting out the need for hard currencies like the US dollar.

Mike Ogbalu III, CEO of PAPSS, made the announcement on the sidelines of the Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2025) held in Abuja. The platform aims to address one of Africa’s biggest trade constraints, which includes currency inconvertibility, which drains an estimated $5 billion annually through fees, delays, and capital trapped in untradeable local currencies.

“We soon realised that solving for payments alone was not enough. Corporations and multinationals continue to struggle with trapped capital due to limited currency convertibility. The PAPSS African Currency Marketplace is our answer to that problem,” said Ogbalu.

Built on Interstellar’s blockchain-agnostic infrastructure, PACM enables peer-to-peer trading of African currencies in near real-time, while ensuring compliance with national regulations. Ernest Mbenkum, Founder and CEO of Interstellar, highlighted that since its pilot phase, over 80 African corporates have transacted across 12 currency pairs, including major companies like Kenya Airways and ZEP-RE.

“This is not just about technology. It is about fulfilling a continental vision. With this marketplace, your local currency becomes a vehicle of opportunity,” he said.

Mbenkum underscored that the new platform builds on PAPSS's growing network, which now connects over 150 banks and 14 national switches across 17 countries.

Haytham El Maayergi, Executive Vice President of Afreximbank, added that while the original PAPSS infrastructure focused on real-time payments, PACM addresses the next frontier of unlocking liquidity and achieving currency sovereignty within the AfCFTA framework.

“Africa will not rise by ideas. Africa will rise by its actions. The PAPSS African Currency Marketplace gives us the power to accept each other’s currencies and truly transform trade on this continent,” he said.

The Afreximbank Vice President emphasized that the platform is now open to eligible corporates, financial institutions, and market participants, marking a new era for frictionless, Pan-African commerce.