Ghana’s leading indigenous bank, Prudential Bank Limited has organised a seminar at the Africa Regent Hotel in Accra to discuss the opportunities and benefits of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).

The discussion which was held under the theme; "Stimulating Trade in Africa through Efficient Payment Solutions- The Role of PAPPS" was moderated by Harry Oppong, Head of Institutional Banking, Prudential Bank Limited.

Panelists for the day were Cynthia Eryue Head, Africa Trade at Oakwood Green Africa; Ositadimma Ugwu, Head Technology & Operations at PAPSS; Leopold Armah, Head, Digital Transformation Prudential Bank; Vivian Boakye Ameyaw, Head, Trade Services Prudential Bank and Mr. Seth Twum Akwaboah from Association of Ghana Industries.

The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System s an initiative of Afreximbank, Africa’s pre-eminent trade finance institution, whose mission includes stimulating the expansion, diversification and development of African trade. PAPPS was created to unlock Africa’s massive potential for internal trade, which enables the efficient flow of cross-border trade and transactions in Africa.

PAPSS features a cutting-edge technology that connects African banks, payment service providers and other financial market intermediaries enabling instant and secure payments between African countries.

The Managing Director of Prudential Bank Limited, John K. Addo welcomed the participants of the day and set the tone for the discussion.

Speaking during the event, Vivian Boakye Ameyaw, Head, Trade Services at Prudential Bank indicated that PAPPS is a timely innovation that will go a long way to facilitate inter-trade among African countries, cutting out the cumbersome process individuals and businesses have to go through to send money across borders.

She said “one of the biggest financial challenges we face is sending money from one African country to another. For example, if a Prudential Bank customer in Ghana wants to send money to a relative in Nigeria, the money would have to go to an overseas bank in Europe or America. This process is not only long but also costly because as the money goes around, surcharges increase. Fortunately, with the arrival of PAPSS this issue will be solved.”

Leopold Armah, Head, Digital Transformation, Prudential Bank expressed his outfits excitement at the introduction of PAPSS to provide better digital solutions to clients.

HE said “PAPSS is addressing the realities of today’s customer which is the ability to do cross border payments just as they will do locally. In a similar way, PAPSS gives more meaning to the AFCTA framework, enabling seamless payments across the African continent”.

Ositadimma Ugwu Head, Technology & Operations at PAPSS, said PAPSS was created to ensure that Africans have a seamless way of making payment.

He also spoke about the uniqueness of PAPPS from other cross border payment systems in that, it is going to eliminate all the correspondent banking structure that we have today and allow one to make the payment instantly and reduce cost involved in making payments.

In strengthening its place as the local bank of choice, Prudential bank is partnering FinTechs with operations in other African countries to support SME businesses to leverage opportunities under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which presents a pipeline of interesting opportunities in the near future.