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Story 1: PAPSS officially launched to aid payments across Africa

Highlights

• The much anticipated Pan-African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS) was officially launched on Thursday, January 13, in a hybrid event held in Accra, Ghana.
• With the new payment system, which is the brainchild of the African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank), a customer in one African country can make payments in their own currency while the recipient in another country receives money in their own currency.
• Prior to the launch, PAPSS was successfully piloted in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), a regional economic organisation that comprises Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

Source: GhanaWeb

Zoom Out 

Lengthy transaction time has always been a major impediment to intra-African commerce. Small businesses in the region grapple with transaction delays due to fragmented banking systems, shortage of foreign currency, among other issues. PAPSS, the first centralised payment market infrastructure for intra-African trade, addresses some of these challenges by speeding up commerce payments processing, clearing, and settlement. It is expected to save Africa more than $5 billion yearly in payment transaction costs.

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Story 2: YC-backed Ghanaian startup Float raises $17m seed

Highlights

• Float, a Ghanaian startup that provides credit lines to small businesses, has raised $17 million to expand its offerings and geographical footprint. It currently operates in Ghana and Nigeria with plans to enter Kenya and South Africa by Q2 2022.
• Part of the seed round is debt ($10 million), provided by Cauris. Tiger Global and JAM Fund, the investment firm of Tinder’s Justin Mateen co-led the equity, with participation from several VC firms and high-profile angel investors, including Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel.
• Float aims to serve as the “financial operating system” for Africa’s SMEs. Apart from flexible credit lines, the startup provides several software tools for business management in one dashboard.

Source: TechCrunch

Zoom Out 

SMEs are an important driver of economic growth in Africa, providing an estimated 80% of jobs across the continent. To grow further and create even more jobs, these businesses need access to more capital than they can currently get. A 2018 research by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) showed that over half of sub-Saharan Africa’s 44 million formal SMEs lacked the requisite finance to grow their businesses. Many startups on the continent like Float are working to solve this credit constraint for small businesses, offering more flexible and less expensive loan terms compared to what SMEs get from traditional banks.