Business News | Addis Ababa | 25 October 2026
Ethiopia has joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a continental network that lets banks and businesses settle cross-border payments within Africa in local currencies instead of routing them through the US dollar or the euro. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and PAPSS announced the move in a joint statement released on 15 October 2026, which said Ethiopian financial institutions can now connect to the network and make payments with financial institutions across the continent.
What was announced
According to the statement, distributed by APO Group on behalf of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), NBE Governor Eyob Tekalign and PAPSS Chief Executive Mike Ogbalu III made the announcement at a joint press conference on the sidelines of the Ethiopia Finance Forum in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian News Agency reported that the NBE hosted the forum, which brought together policymakers, financial institutions and development partners.
“Ethiopia’s integration into the PAPSS network represents an important step in our continued efforts to modernise our financial system and deepen our economic connections with the rest of Africa,” Eyob said in the statement. “It creates new opportunities for Ethiopian financial institutions and businesses to participate more actively in cross-border payments and intra-African trade.”
Ogbalu called Ethiopia’s entry “an important milestone” that “connects Ethiopian financial institutions to a growing continental payments infrastructure and opens new opportunities for cross-border payments with the rest of Africa.”
How PAPSS works
PAPSS was set up under the auspices of Afreximbank, the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to support payments for trade within Africa, the statement said. Reuters reported that the system allows parties to transact directly in local currencies, so businesses can bypass the dollar and no longer need to send payments through correspondent banks abroad. PAPSS was launched in January 2022 with 10 commercial banks, according to Reuters, and its network now includes Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi and Tunisia.
Which Ethiopian banks will connect, and when
The 15 October statement did not name the Ethiopian banks that will connect first or give a date for the first live transactions. In late September, Ogbalu told the Ethiopian business outlet Shega that four Ethiopian commercial banks had already asked the NBE for “no objection” letters to begin integration, and that he hoped the letters would be issued within a few weeks. Shega reported that each bank must then pass PAPSS financial, security and operational compliance checks before it is onboarded, and that PAPSS aims to connect half of Ethiopia’s commercial banks by March 2027.
“There may be banks that do not meet the requirements,” Ogbalu told Shega. He said the process took years partly because Ethiopian officials were concerned that data on the network could be exposed to other member countries. “It took time to convince the government that no data belongs to any of the other countries,” he said. Shega reported that Ethiopia signed the PAPSS bylaws about a month before those talks, becoming the 31st member country.
An Africa payments conference in Addis Ababa
The NBE and PAPSS also announced that Addis Ababa will host PAPSS COWRY 2026, which the organisers describe as Africa’s Payments Conference, on 26 and 27 November 2026 at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel. The organisers expect more than 1,000 delegates, more than 60 speakers and more than 35 exhibition booths, with sessions on cross-border payments, local currency settlement, interoperability, artificial intelligence, stablecoins, digital assets and cybersecurity, according to the statement.
Why it matters
For Ethiopian importers, exporters and banks that trade with other African countries, a working PAPSS link could reduce the need to find US dollars or euros to settle those payments. The network covers payments between African countries; neither the statement nor the Reuters report addressed remittances sent from outside Africa, such as transfers from the United States, Europe or the Middle East. Ethiopian banks have been expanding digital services quickly: the Ethiopian News Agency reported, citing the NBE, that digital financial transactions in Ethiopia were worth 33 trillion birr in the 2025/26 fiscal year.
Related on Ethiopialist
- National Bank of Ethiopia listing
- Top 10 Ethiopian Banks by Total Assets (2024/25)
- Ethiopian Banks Compared: Profiles of the Major Banks
- How to Send Money to Ethiopia: Fees and Options Compared
- Ethiopian Skylight Hotel listing (venue of PAPSS COWRY 2026)
This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
Sources
- Afreximbank and National Bank of Ethiopia joint statement, “Ethiopia Joins Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) Network as National Bank of Ethiopia and PAPSS Announce the 2nd Edition of COWRY in Addis Ababa”, APO Group, 15 October 2026: afreximbank.africa-newsroom.com and afreximbank.com
- Reuters, “Ethiopia’s central bank joins African payments system PAPSS”, 15 October 2026, as published by CNBC Africa: cnbcafrica.com
- FinTech Futures, “National Bank of Ethiopia connects to PAPSS payments network”, 19 October 2026: fintechfutures.com
- Central Banking, “National Bank of Ethiopia joins Papss”: centralbanking.com
- Shega, report on PAPSS talks with four Ethiopian commercial banks, late September 2026, as posted on Shega’s LinkedIn page: linkedin.com/company/shegahq; also reported by FSX Business: fsxbusiness.com
- Ethiopian News Agency, “Digital Finance Surge Marks Turning Point for Ethiopian Banking Sector: NBE”, 1 October 2026: ena.et
Last updated: 25 October 2026.
Send corrections to the Ethiopialist editors.
Featured image: The Addis Ababa skyline at night; the tallest tower, at left, is the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia headquarters. Photo: Abshewaga, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.