Abuja: From the electric rhythms of Afrobeats, vibrant runway fashion, and captivating literary works by African writers, creatives are spellbinding global audiences and redefining cultural influence. Beyond artistic expression, this unstoppable creative explosion represents a multi-billion-dollar economic engine capable of powering massive youth employment and continental trade.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, talented artistes, filmmakers, and designers have historically faced suffocating financial barriers when trying to monetize their work across fragmented African borders. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) emerges as a revolutionary financial infrastructure designed to seamlessly bridge these economic divides for creators everywhere.
When Afreximbank and the African Union first unveiled PAPSS in Niamey back in 2019, they set a bold target for continental integration. Consequently, PAPSS was adopted as a cornerstone instrument for implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area, unlocking frictionless commerce across all borders.
By December 2020, African Union leaders directed Afreximbank to finalize the system, paving a clear path toward total financial unification for Africa. Following directives from the AU Assembly, Afreximbank expanded the platform’s reach, ensuring every African nation could access this transformative payment grid.
Officially unveiled in Accra in January 2022, PAPSS instantly revolutionized cross-border transactions, making instant payments available to the general public. Since then, the platform has made remarkable strides, seamlessly connecting central banks, commercial lenders, and businesses into one unified payment ecosystem.
Today, PAPSS powers intra-African trade through three distinct solutions: the Instant Payment System, African Currency Marketplace, and the versatile PAPSSCARD. Recognizing this immense economic potential, Afreximbank remains deeply committed to unlocking creative value chains, viewing art as a vital catalyst for growth.
Reinstating its commitment to unlocking the value chains of Africa’s booming creative industry, the institution describes it as a critical pathway to job creation and economic growth across the continent. Speaking on digital payments, PAPSS Chief Executive Officer, Mike Ogbalu III, said the bank sees the creative sector not just as culture and entertainment, but as a full economic ecosystem that must be deliberately supported.
According to Ogbalu, this passion has translated into a structured engagement with artists and other players in the creative ecosystem to understand their real-world payment challenges and design solutions around them. Afreximbank is leveraging PAPSS to build an environment that enables third parties to plug in payment solutions tailored for digital creatives, including royalties, licensing, and cross-border earnings.
Ogbalu described the work as a two-pronged effort involving both internal innovation and external partnerships. He linked these efforts to the structural shift from physical to digital trade, noting that legacy payment systems were not built with today’s creative digital economy in mind.
Within the PAPSS framework and the bank’s wider payments infrastructure, a new environment is being assembled to allow innovators to build targeted solutions on top of Afreximbank rails for the benefit of creatives. He stressed that while the initiative was still evolving, the creative sector would remain a priority.
Beyond PAPSS and platform-level work, Afreximbank is also tying its payment innovations to concrete events in the creative calendar. Papa Samba Thiongane, Head of Marketing and Communications for PAPSS, said the institution was collaborating with the upcoming Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) event in Lagos in November to pilot solutions that would help African exhibitors collect payments more easily from local buyers.
In response, Afreximbank is co-designing payment tools with partners in the CANEX ecosystem so that exhibitors can accept local payments seamlessly. This broader strategy aims to aggressively engage the creative sector as a serious economic pillar, facilitating the efficient flow of money securely across African borders, contributing to employment and economic growth across the continent.