payment

Investments in instant and cross-border payment systems fuel adoption.

From the start of August to the end of September, the National Bank of Rwanda saw transactions on its eKash instant digital payment system jump from 140,000 to 1 million per month.

The value of transactions also rose sharply, from about $7 million per month to around $1.5 billion per month.

The Rwandan government considered payments a public good and invested in eKash as part of the digital public infrastructure, provided that the new platform ensured a level playing field between mobile money operators and banks, said Soraya Munyana Hakuziyaremye, the Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, during a Governor Talk at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok. 

eKash Takes Flight

The central bank, taking a page from leading operators of instant payment systems like India’s UPI and Brazil’s PIX, decided to eliminate existing bilateral relationships that mobile money providers had with banks and microfinance institutions and mandated that all person-to-person transactions take place on eKash. It also capped transaction fees at a hundredth of what users might have previously paid.

“For transactions that were above a million [Rwandan] francs [about $679], you could pay up to the equivalent of a $2 fee for a transaction,” Hakuziyaremye said. “Today, the transfer fee is capped at 20 francs, or less than $0.02.”

Without the mandatory routing requirement, she added, the central bank could not have reduced transaction costs. 

To soften the blow the mandate had on the bottom lines of the affected banks, mobile money providers, and microfinance operators, the central bank showed them possible new revenue streams from offerings that leveraged the transaction data collected by eKash.

“They can negotiate with our national switch for the data they need at an aggregated level to offer more lending to their clients, since they have the history of their transactions, and use alternative credit scoring instead of asking for collateral for every single loan they give,” said Hakuziyaremye.

Access to credit remains a major concern for the National Bank of Rwanda, or NBR, as 92% of people have bank or mobile money accounts, but only 20% have access to credit or microcredit. 

“It is still a very huge gap,” she said. “So, tracking the financial health indicators will help us improve the financial well-being of citizens.”

Cross-Border Integration

The East African country is also experiencing rapid advancements in cross-border payment integration at the regional and continental levels.

The NRB is seeing the East African Payment Master Plan, adopted by the East Africa Community, or EAC, in 2025, begin to bear fruit. The central bank launched a pilot that integrates eKash with its eastern neighbor’s Tanzania Instant Payment System, or TIPS.

“We want to use this as a blueprint for a framework to integrate payment systems in the region,” said Hakuziyaremye.

At the same time, the country is part of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which has its own regional payment system, the COMESA Clearing House.

The NRB is actively integrating its payment systems with the African Continental Free Trade Area’s Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which seeks to deliver instant payments to beneficiaries in their local currency anywhere in Africa.

When faced with regional cross-border instant payment transactions, NRB agreed to route all of its intra-EAC payments through the regional EAC payment system and to route transactions outside the EAC through PAPSS.

“I believe that this is the approach to take,” she said. “It’s not duplicating the regional payment system, but allows cross-regional payments for regions that already had regional payment systems.”

Rob Daly covers fintech and the economy. Contact him at rdaly@gfmag.com.

CAPSS has entered its pilot phase, bringing real-time local currency payments to 11 Caribbean nations.

This article appears in the October issue of Global Finance Magazine.

The long-awaited CARICOM Payment and Settlement System (CAPSS), designed to transform cross-border payment settlement across the Caribbean, has entered its pilot phase, putting the region’s vision for real-time payments in local currencies into practice across 11 jurisdictions.

Developed by the region’s central banks in partnership with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), CAPSS connects national payment systems to enable real-time cross-border payments in local currencies, allowing businesses and consumers to bypass the U.S. dollar as an intermediary.

“While background settlements will still involve U.S. dollars among central banks, day-to-day transactions will use local currencies — a key innovation with broad potential,” said Timothy Antoine, governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, which serves eight Caribbean countries and territories that share a common currency.

Cutting Costs

The project aims to boost intra-CARICOM trade, with goods exports to regional partners accounting for roughly 8% of the bloc’s total goods exports, according to the IMF.

Settling directly in local currencies cuts foreign exchange conversion costs and makes smaller cross-border transactions worthwhile, which matters most to small- and mid-sized businesses, who pay the highest relative costs for international payments.

“If for instance, I am in Barbados and I want to buy goods from Trinidad and I don’t have the U.S. dollars to make that payment, then it becomes simply wishful thinking. We think that stifles trade,” said Okechukwu Ihejirika, acting chief operating officer at Afreximbank’s Caribbean office.

CAPSS also offers a route around the region’s shrinking correspondent-banking network. Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2024 found that about 40% of correspondent banks had withdrawn from the Caribbean over the previous 15 years.

An IMF working paper published in May, “Mind the Gaps: Caribbean Trade Patterns and the Connectivity Constraint,” found cross-border banking relationships lift CARICOM trade at less than half the global rate.

Modeled On African Payment Rail

The system is modeled on the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, or PAPSS, launched by Afreximbank and the African Union in 2022. PAPSS provides a framework for real-time cross-border payments in local currencies and now connects banks and payment providers across 16 African countries.

The Caribbean push began in October 2023, when every CARICOM central bank adopted PAPSS as its preferred settlement system. 

A proof of concept took place in February 2025 at the Central Bank of The Bahamas, where a live payment between Barbados and The Bahamas settled in each country’s own currency, with no dollars passing between them. Afreximbank and PAPSS provided a design already running in Africa, while payments software firm Montran Corp. built the connection between the two national systems. Trinidad and Tobago’s central bank took part, and Suriname sent an observer.

Governors expanded the test last November. CARICOM’s central bankers meet again in November, the next point at which the timetable could firm up.

Beyond the pilot, central banks plan to link CAPSS to PAPSS, building a payment bridge between Caribbean and African markets.

Thomas Monteiro is a contributing writer based in Spain.

The island nation sets out to eliminate high fees and multi-day delays for African cross-border transactions.

This article appears in the October issue of Global Finance Magazine.

In a fragmented landscape, aggregation matters. This philosophy underpins Mauritius’s quest to become the epicenter of cross-border payments in Africa, where layers of friction and an inability to converge have impeded deeper economic integration.  

By building frictionless systems anchored in regulation, technology, and market dynamics, Mauritius, a small, upper-middle-income island nation of just 1.26 million people, is redefining payments in Africa and shifting the narrative for a continent long bound to Western capital in international payments.

“Through trust, Mauritius has become a hub for digital finance,” said Shane Mungur, senior associate at Mauritius-based law firm BLC Robert & Associates. 

The reality of cross-border payments in Africa is that businesses and entrepreneurs must route transactions through correspondent banks in Europe and the U.S., paying fees as high as 7.1%, compared with a global average of about 2.8%. Worse, transactions can take as long as seven days to complete.

Mauritius’s effort to demonstrate that seamless payments in Africa are feasible is part of the nation’s ambitious transition to what it terms a “future-ready economic” model. This includes shifting the economy from dependence on sugarcane production and textiles and apparel to a new framework with the financial sector as the heartbeat. It has also meant shifting the focus of its search for a competitive edge from regional and bilateral trade treaties, legal and regulatory reforms, tax incentives, and the speedy incorporation of companies to cutting-edge innovation. 

“Mauritius remains relevant and attractive as payment ecosystems evolve,” said Sharmilla Bhima, a partner at Mauritius-based law firm Appleby. Expanding its international financial center’s scope to cover cross-border payments is based on a conviction that Africa’s economy can only transform and become truly resilient if money can move across borders efficiently, securely, transparently, and affordably.

In recent years, more than $80 billion in Africa-bound investments have been structured through Mauritius. More than 450 private equity funds are now domiciled there, deploying capital across the continent. 

“Mauritius is a jurisdiction that serves as a gateway for businesses seeking to participate in Africa’s growing economic integration,” Bhima said.

Cross-Border Payments Boom

The timing appears to be right. 

Africa’s cross-border payments market is ballooning. Valued at $329 billion last year, it is projected to hit the $1 trillion mark in the next decade. Fragmentation nevertheless remains a barrier to unleashing the benefits of cross-border payments, cutting against the growth of trade, investment, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, and economic integration.

Plans for a common currency to replace more than 40 local currencies remain a pipe dream while multiple regulatory regimes, limited interoperability, weak transparency, and dependence on intermediary currencies make friction a constant.  

The continent continues to depend on hard currencies that are in short supply, increase conversion costs, and tie up working capital. Yet, the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area, the continent’s most ambitious effort at market integration, stands or falls largely on the ability of the member states to settle transactions in local currencies. The same applies to e-commerce, which is impeded by strict domestic transfer restrictions and high fees. Only 55% of African governments permit electronic know-your-customer and remittance costs are the highest globally, averaging 8% to 8.5%. 

As Africa tries to tackle cross-border payments, some 36 instant payment systems, 33 country systems, and three regional systems are live, enabling some instant payments but also adding complexity. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System remains the boldest initiative to counter these impediments. So far, 31 countries, 190 commercial banks and fintechs, and 16 payment switches are connected.  

Sticking to the Basics

Mauritius aims to provide its own answer by sticking to the basics of finance. Its regulatory focus is on creating a predictable environment that attracts investment and encourages transparent and secure capital flows: not just a safe haven or conduit for laundering.

Predictability has made Mauritius a hotspot for foreign direct investment. Last year, FDI inflows reached a record $1 billion, up from $705.7 million in 2024. Most of this — $400 million — was in the financial services sector, compared to just $20.8 million in 2024.

The Bank of Mauritius has assembled what it considers to be robust hardware and software infrastructure that can integrate with existing systems across multiple jurisdictions. The Mauritius Automated Clearing and Settlement System and the Mauritius Central Automated Switch (MauCAS), both administered by the central bank, were designed with interoperability in mind. The former settles transactions in major currencies as well as the local rupee. 

“This is one of the most effective competitive edges in payments,” Mungur said.

Mauritius is also exploiting its strategic location as a financial bridge between Africa and Asia. A partnership with China enables settlement of transactions with renminbi while linking MauCAS with India’s switch has significantly boosted digital payments.

While regulation and technology are fundamental to Mauritius’s positioning as a payments hub, so is its ability to adapt to changing market dynamics. By removing exchange controls, the rupee is fully convertible, while foreign currency accounts can be held locally and no approval is needed to repatriate profit or capital. This is critical for treasurers moving money across African borders. 

The central bank is also cognizant of the payments landscape’s fluidity, from electronic transfers to mobile wallets, QR-based payments, blockchain, tokenization, and many other channels, and has made encouraging financial innovation a priority. 

“Encouraging innovation has enabled Mauritius to adopt new technologies that improve speed, reduce costs, and enhance client experience,” said Bhima. Regulators have nevertheless been careful to safeguard financial integrity and prevent inherent risks associated with like money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, cybercrime, and sanctions evasion. 

On this, Mauritius understands that trust is essential to establishing itself as a hub for cross-border payments.

(Source: State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems in Africa 2025)

John Njiraini is a contributing writer based in Kenya.