Cross-Border Payment Systems Key to AfCFTA Success – BoG Deputy Warns

Africa cannot achieve full market integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) without fixing its payment systems. That was the core message from the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Matilda Asante-Asiedu, at the Africa Prosperity Dialogues 2026 in Accra.

She warns emphatically that trade agreements alone are not enough. Efficient value transfer is the real backbone of integration.

AfCFTA brings together over 1.5 billion people with a combined GDP of about 2.8 trillion dollars. If fully implemented, intra-African trade could double in the medium term. But that growth depends on more than policy frameworks.

It depends on how money moves across borders. According to the deputy governor, Africa’s cross-border payments remain expensive, slow, and fragmented Transaction costs range between 7% and 10%, compared with the global average of about 3%.

Settlement times can take days or even weeks. More than 80% of payments between African countries are routed through correspondent banks outside the continent. This costs Africa an estimated 5.3 billion dollars annually. That is a structural weakness.

Payment systems are not just financial tools. They are strategic trade infrastructure. They affect monetary stability, financial integration, business competitiveness, and long-term economic transformation.

Without secure, affordable and reliable payment channels, AfCFTA’s goals remain limited on paper. Trade must move fast. Money must move faster.

Despite the challenges, Africa leads globally in digital finance innovation. The continent accounts for more than half of the world’s mobile wallets. Mobile money has expanded financial access across rural and underserved communities. Ghana offers a strong example.

Mobile money interoperability transaction values rose from 3.1 billion cedis in December 2024 to 5.8 billion cedis in December 2025. That represents an 87% increase in just one year. The numbers show momentum. Technology is working. The next step is scaling it across borders.

The Bank of Ghana is pushing several reforms to improve cross-border payment systems including;

1. FinTech Passport Initiative

This is a collaborative framework between the Bank of Ghana and the Bank of Rwanda. It allows cross-border licensing and builds regulatory trust. The goal is to make it easier for financial technology firms to operate across African markets.

2. Next Generation Digital Public Infrastructure

The central bank is testing Multilateral interoperability frameworks, Settlement modules and Future cross-border currency arrangements.

These initiatives aim to reduce friction in intra-African payments.

3. Virtual Asset Service Providers Act

The recently passed law supports emerging digital payment channels. It also ensures consumer protection and proper risk oversight. Digital innovation must grow. But it must grow safely.

High transaction costs do not affect everyone equally. Small businesses are hit the hardest particularly women traders, informal cross-border merchants, young entrepreneurs among others.

For many small traders, a 7% to 10% transaction cost is not marginal. It determines profit or loss. Removing payment barriers can unlock scale, improve competitiveness and can expand opportunity across the continent.

Ghana hosts the AfCFTA Secretariat. That position carries responsibility, placing Ghana at the centre of conversations around:

• Trade facilitation

• Digital payments

• Regulatory harmonization

• Regional integration

Industry stakeholders at the forum agreed on one point, that is, improving payment infrastructure and promoting interoperable digital platforms essential to unlocking the full benefits of intra-African trade.

The numbers are clear, the ambition is clear, the urgency is clear. The real question is execution. Can Africa build secure, interoperable and affordable financial rails that keep value within the continent?

AfCFTA is a trade revolution but without efficient payment systems, it risks becoming a slow revolution. Africa has the market and wields significant technology to build the pipes that move the money.