Keypoints:
- BEAC opens PAPSS route into six CEMAC states
- Network coverage expands to 28 African countries
- Financial institutions will be connected through 2026
THE Bank of Central African States has joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, giving the continental platform a formal entry point into the six-country CEMAC monetary bloc.
The membership could eventually allow banks, businesses and individuals to make local-currency payments between Central Africa and other African markets. The announcement did not indicate that services were immediately available across CEMAC, with integration work expected to continue through the end of 2026.
BEAC opens path for six states
BEAC, commonly known by its French acronym, serves as the regional central bank for Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.
The countries form the Central African Economic and Monetary Community and share the Central African CFA franc, which is pegged to the euro.
PAPSS said BEAC’s membership increased its coverage to 28 African countries, 16 payment switches and more than 190 commercial banks and financial technology companies.
The expansion builds on PAPSS’s wider drive to process African payments locally and reduce the continent’s dependence on external settlement currencies.
Through its extended partner network, PAPSS participants can also send money to more than 250 additional financial institutions, according to the official announcement.
CEMAC has a combined population of more than 72 million people, giving PAPSS an important platform for expanding cross-border payment services across francophone Central Africa.
Local-currency transfers targeted
PAPSS was developed by Afreximbank in partnership with the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat.
Afreximbank has previously argued that shared digital infrastructure is essential to making AfCFTA operational across Africa’s fragmented markets.
The system allows participating institutions to process cross-border payments in African currencies without routing transactions through third-party currencies or external intermediaries.
The local-currency model complements PAPSS’s African currency market pilot, which was developed to simplify currency conversion and cross-border settlement.
PAPSS says its infrastructure can settle eligible payments within seconds and reduce some of the costs and delays associated with conventional correspondent banking channels.
The initiative also seeks to address persistent payment barriers slowing regional trade, including fragmented banking infrastructure and currency constraints.
Those potential benefits will, however, depend on the successful connection of CEMAC banks, payment providers and other financial institutions.
Governor urges banks to prepare
BEAC Governor Yvon Sana Bangui said the membership was creating conditions for ‘faster, more affordable and more efficient cross-border payments between the CEMAC countries and Africa’.
Bangui, who also chairs the Association of African Central Banks, called on commercial banks and other financial institutions across the six member states to prepare to join the platform.
‘The success of African trade integration will depend not only on policy and infrastructure, but also on the active involvement of the financial sector,’ he said.
PAPSS Chief Executive Mike Ogbalu III described the agreement as an important step towards deeper financial integration across the continent.
He said BEAC’s participation could create new trade and payment corridors between Central Africa and other African regions.
West African pilot planned
The expansion comes as PAPSS prepares to begin a pilot with the Central Bank of West African States later in 2026.
BCEAO is the common central bank of the eight-member West African Monetary Union, whose countries share the West African CFA franc.
The planned pilot could eventually place financial institutions from Africa’s two CFA franc zones on the PAPSS infrastructure. The announcement, however, did not provide details of a direct payment corridor between BEAC and BCEAO members.
PAPSS said it would work closely with BEAC through the end of 2026 to operationalise the membership, connect CEMAC financial institutions and facilitate the rollout of services to businesses and individuals.
The speed of implementation will determine when customers across the CEMAC region begin to experience the promised improvements in cross-border payments.
