UBA, PAPSS seal deal to enhance cross-border transactions across Africa.

The MoU was signed by both organisations in Accra, Ghana, Monday June 19, 2023. This was on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 30^th Afreximbank Annual Meeting (AAM). 

During the event, UBA Group also signed an agreement with the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, to provide financial support to Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, in order to boost intra-Africa trade.

PAPSS established by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, is a financial market infrastructure that provides a secure and efficient channel for processing cross-border payments, ensuring speed, affordable cost, and reliability in order to facilitate intra-African trade.

UBA Group’s Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Muyiwa Akinyemi, who signed on behalf of the UBA Group, explained that by leveraging the capabilities of PAPSS, the bank’s subsidiaries in more than 20 countries with over 1,000 branches and 35 million customers, will streamline fund transfers, while ensuring transparency and compliance under the Regulators supervision.

“UBA Group, in collaboration with AFREXIM Bank and PAPSS, was among the first commercial banks to implement PAPSS in five countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and with our vast presence in 20 countries across Africa, this partnership will facilitate a seamless cross-border payment, and will be a further boost to UBA’s AfriTrade product that allows customers to trade across Africa,” Muyiwa Akinyemi said.

The senior UBA Group official added that with PAPSS, customers of UBA will also be able to trade in countries where the bank is yet to make its footprint.

Commenting on the partnership with AfCFTA, the Deputy Managing Director noted that UBA remains committed towards supporting SMEs in Africa, especially with the banks’ robust network, which is spread across 20 countries. “In UBA, we say your small business is big business,” Akinyemi added.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of PAPSS, Mike Ogbalu III, said: “UBA Group was one of the first banks to adopt the commercial bank settlement model, our new settlement model designed to meet the needs of commercial banks while the central banks will retain their oversight responsibilities. 

“We owe a great debt of gratitude to the bank's management for backing PAPSS and thereby showing their sincere dedication to enabling Africa take control of its own destiny,” Ogbalu III. 

Ogbalu III explained that this MoU will be put into effect gradually in partnership with the Central Banks in the countries where UBA operates. 

Customers of UBA in Africa, Ogbalu III explained, will be informed through the usual channels of communications as soon as the service becomes available in their countries.

United Bank for Africa, UBA, is one of the largest employers in the financial sector on the African continent, with 25,000 employees group wide and serving over 35 million customers globally. 

Operating in 20 African countries and in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, USA, France and the United Arab Emirates, UAE; UBA provides retail, commercial and institutional banking.