Onafriq Nigeria Payments Limited has partnered with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to launch Africa’s first wallet-based outbound payments pilot from Nigeria to Ghana, enabling instant transactions in Naira without hard currency conversion. The six-month pilot, approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), commenced on December 1, 2025.
The service enables cross-border intra-African payments for individuals, merchants, and traders through partnerships with banks and mobile money operators. Mxolisi Msutwana, Managing Director of Anglophone West Africa at Onafriq, stated the initiative particularly benefits small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which drive intra-African trade, by providing faster and cheaper access to customers and suppliers across borders.
The partnership leverages Onafriq’s mobile money ecosystem of over one billion mobile wallets alongside PAPSS’s network of more than 160 commercial banks representing over 400 million bank accounts across 19 African countries. The collaboration seamlessly connects mobile money and banking systems, addressing silos that currently inhibit transactions between bank-led and mobile-led African markets.
Msutwana explained that the partnership demonstrates how collaboration at scale unlocks seamless connections between banking systems and mobile money ecosystems. He emphasized the initiative opens bidirectional trade corridors, reduces business costs, and provides African enterprises the infrastructure needed to trade confidently in their own currencies.
Ositadimma Ugwu, Chief Information Officer at PAPSS, stated the service challenges the mindset that views borders as roadblocks rather than opportunities. He noted the pilot gives Nigerians the ability to send value across borders with the same ease as sending text messages, advancing the vision of making Africa’s borders invisible to payments.
The initiative builds on the successful Ghana to Nigeria instant payments corridor launched earlier in 2025, which enabled outbound transactions from Ghana. The new Nigeria to Ghana capability establishes a fully bidirectional payment corridor between West Africa’s two largest economies.
Under the arrangement, customers can take possession of services and complete payments over agreed periods, provided they maintain sustained and reliable income sources. PAPSS processes transactions using local currencies and nets flows multilaterally, reducing reliance on third-party currencies and minimizing exposure to currency volatility.
The service aligns with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) mandate, which drives tariff-free trade for 54 member states. By reducing barriers to cross-border trade, the partnership enables businesses to expand addressable markets and increase economic activity across the continent.
With over one billion mobile wallets and 500 million bank accounts connected across Africa, the Onafriq-PAPSS partnership positions cross-border collaboration at continental scale. The pilot will assess transaction flows, user adoption, and foreign exchange performance while delivering improved rates and more accessible services to customers.
Both institutions expressed confidence that the collaboration represents practical steps toward continental payment integration, demonstrating that Africa’s payments future is local, instant, and inclusive.
