Onafriq Nigeria Payments Ltd, a Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed service provider, has teamed up with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to launch Africa’s first wallet-based outbound payments pilot from Nigeria to Ghana, allowing instant Naira transactions without hard currency conversion in partnership with banks and mobile money operators.
The CBN-approved initiative, set for full operations from December 1 for a six-month period, targets individuals, merchants and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) to dismantle cross-border trade hurdles and fuel intra-African commerce under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) mandate.
By linking Onafriq’s vast mobile money rails—spanning over one billion wallets—with PAPSS’s network of 160 commercial banks and 400 million accounts across 19 countries, the service erases silos between bank-led and mobile economies, fostering seamless bi-directional payments.
Mxolisi Msutwana, Managing Director of Anglophone West Africa at Onafriq, hailed the move as a game-changer. “Our work with PAPSS shows what collaboration at scale can unlock—seamless, secure connections between banking systems and mobile money ecosystems,” he said. “This is how we open bi-directional trade corridors, reduce costs for businesses, and give African enterprises the rails they need to trade with confidence in their own currencies.”
Ositadimma Ugwu, Chief Information Officer at PAPSS, echoed the sentiment. “Too often, African businesses and individuals see borders as roadblocks instead of opportunities. With this step, we’re challenging that mindset, giving Nigerians the ability to send value next door with the same ease as sending a text message,” Ugwu stated.
The Nigeria-to-Ghana outbound pilot builds directly on this year’s successful Ghana-to-Nigeria instant payments corridor, proving Africa’s payment ecosystem is evolving toward local, instant and inclusive transactions that promise to supercharge trade across the continent’s 54 AfCFTA member states.
