Somalia draws its banks into pan-African payments network

The central bank has gathered the country’s commercial lenders in Mogadishu as it works to connect them to a continental settlement system designed to smooth cross-border trade.

The Central Bank of Somalia has begun connecting the country’s commercial banks to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), hosting a workshop in Mogadishu three months after Somalia joined the continental network.

The nation signed the PAPSS membership agreement in March 2026 and has since worked with the operator on onboarding and integration, a process the central bank said the Mogadishu workshop was intended to advance.

The session brought the system’s operators together with Somali banks to discuss its payment products, among them instant transfers and trade-related settlement services for businesses and financial institutions.

PAPSS, launched by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the African Union to support commerce under the African Continental Free Trade Area, allows banks across member states to send and receive payments in local currencies. Rather than routing transactions through correspondent banks and converting them into hard currency, it settles balances between participating central banks, with Afreximbank acting as settlement agent. The network now reaches 31 African countries through more than 190 direct and indirect participants.

The link rests on domestic infrastructure assembled over the previous two years. Somalia launched its national payment switch and an instant payment system in January 2025, adopting the ISO 20022 messaging standard and a national QR-code standard, SOMQR, over the same period. The central bank said the Somali Payment Switch was progressing towards integration with PAPSS

Somalia’s entry into the network follows its accession to Afreximbank in March 2025, when it became the institution’s 53rd African member state. The bank tied the initiative to its 2025-2029 strategic plan, which prioritises stronger payment systems, support for trade and deeper regional financial connectivity.