Domestic instant payment systems are live or launching across more than a dozen African markets, but connecting them across borders remains one of the continent’s most complex infrastructure challenges. While platforms like PAPSS and regional switches offer technical pathways, the real barriers are institutional: regulatory asymmetry, liquidity management across currencies, and the political will to cede aspects of national control for continental gain.
This panel moves beyond the “why” of instant payments to the “how” of cross-border scale, including settlement models, FX management, shared compliance frameworks, and the emerging role of stablecoins as liquidity bridges in corridors where traditional correspondent banking falls short.
