A planned link with PAPSS could allow Egyptians to make cross-border African payments from local-currency accounts, while reducing reliance on conventional dollar-routed transfers.
Egypt is preparing to connect its instant-payment infrastructure with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a move that could eventually extend InstaPay-style transfers across participating African markets.
Mike Ogbalu, chief executive of PAPSS, said Afreximbank is discussing the integration with the Central Bank of Egypt, with technical connection targeted for the first quarter of 2027. He added that six major Egyptian banks have already begun joining the system and are expected to start PAPSS transactions before the end of 2026.
The Central Bank of Egypt joined PAPSS in 2024 as part of efforts to support faster cross-border payments, lower transaction costs and reduce pressure on foreign-currency liquidity.
From Domestic Payments to African Transfers
The proposed connection would link Egypt’s Instant Payment Network — the infrastructure behind InstaPay — with PAPSS, potentially allowing Egyptian users to send or receive payments through participating African financial institutions.
Today, InstaPay mainly facilitates instant transfers inside Egypt’s banking system. Under a future PAPSS connection, an Egyptian could potentially initiate a payment from an EGP-denominated account while the recipient receives the value through a participating African bank in their domestic currency.
The system would not eliminate foreign exchange conversion. Instead, it could reduce the need to route individual payments through dollars and multiple correspondent banks.
PAPSS uses multilateral netting and settlement arrangements, allowing cross-border obligations to be offset before final settlement. This can reduce the amount of hard currency required to intermediate gross regional payment flows.
Trade and Foreign-Currency Implications
For individuals, the main benefit could be faster and potentially cheaper cross-border transfers and remittances.
For Egyptian exporters and SMEs, the larger gain may come from faster African collections, lower settlement friction and shorter working-capital cycles. This could become increasingly important as Egypt seeks to expand trade across the continent under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
At the macroeconomic level, the system could also reduce the use of hard currency as an intermediary for regional payments, improving settlement efficiency at a time when foreign-exchange management remains strategically important for Egypt.
The service is not yet available to retail users, and fees, transaction limits, participating markets, foreign-exchange arrangements and the eventual InstaPay interface have not been disclosed.
If implemented at scale, the PAPSS connection would mark a shift beyond domestic instant payments toward a broader African settlement architecture — one that could lower transaction costs, improve trade liquidity and reduce dependence on traditional dollar-based payment routes.
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