Every exporter or importer who has waited days for a payment to clear or watched a shipment’s margin shrink because of currency conversion understands a reality that policy documents rarely capture: trade does not fail only at the border.
Sometimes, it fails in the payment.
Goods can move freely across a continent, but if the money behind them takes a week and passes through several intermediaries before arriving, that freedom means little.
This is one of the less visible challenges Ghana’s next phase of trade growth must address, and it is why two systems with relatively unglamorous acronyms — CIPS and PAPSS — deserve greater attention in corporate boardrooms and among businesses seeking to expand beyond Ghana.
The Cost of Doing Business Across Borders
For years, Ghanaian businesses engaged in international trade have relied heavily on correspondent banking networks — chains of intermediary banks that help route payments between different banking and currency systems.
In many cases, transactions involving countries that do not share a direct payment relationship can ultimately be settled through major international currencies such as the US dollar. Each additional link in that chain can introduce cost, delay and uncertainty.
Payments may take days to clear, exchange-rate movements can affect transaction margins, and businesses may have limited visibility into where their funds are during the settlement process.
For large corporations with dedicated treasury teams, such friction can often be managed. For small and medium-sized enterprises, however, the consequences can be considerably greater.
SMEs form an important part of Ghana’s business and export ecosystem, but many lack the financial resources to absorb prolonged settlement delays, manage currency risks or withstand unnecessary transaction costs.
For such businesses, payment efficiency can determine whether an international contract remains commercially viable or whether a competitor offering a faster and cheaper transaction process wins the opportunity.
Intra-African trade has faced similar challenges. Even transactions between neighbouring African countries have sometimes involved multiple currency conversions and external correspondent banks, adding complexity and cost to payments that should ideally be straightforward.
Two Systems, Different Jobs
PAPSS, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, and CIPS, China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, address different parts of the cross-border payments challenge.
PAPSS is designed to facilitate cross-border payments across participating African markets, including transactions that can be settled in African currencies. By reducing the need for multiple currency conversions and correspondent banking intermediaries, the system has the potential to make intra-African commerce faster, more transparent and more cost-efficient.
CIPS operates on a different corridor. It provides infrastructure for cross-border transactions involving the Chinese yuan, creating a more direct channel for businesses and financial institutions conducting Renminbi-denominated transactions with Chinese counterparts.
That is particularly relevant to Ghana given the scale and importance of its commercial relationship with China.
Used strategically, the two systems do not necessarily compete. They can complement each other.
PAPSS can strengthen Ghana’s financial connections within Africa, while CIPS can deepen its payment links with China and the wider Asian market. Together, they offer businesses greater choice in how they move money across different trading corridors.
Turning Policy Into Practice
The African Continental Free Trade Area promises a single African market of more than a billion people. But a market becomes genuinely useful to businesses only when the financial infrastructure supporting trade is efficient enough to allow transactions to happen at scale.
PAPSS is an important part of that infrastructure.
Ghana’s position is particularly significant because the country hosts the AfCFTA Secretariat and has been among the markets involved in the development and rollout of the continental payment system.
The potential beneficiaries extend well beyond large corporations.
For smaller importers and exporters, payment costs can consume a disproportionate share of transaction value, while delayed settlement can tie up working capital that could otherwise be used to purchase stock, pay workers or expand operations.
Faster, cheaper and more transparent payment channels could give such businesses greater room to compete in markets that were previously difficult or expensive to access.
That could include a manufacturer sourcing raw materials from another African country, an agribusiness reaching new export markets, a mining company settling with an international partner, or a digital services business delivering its work across borders.
The sectors most exposed to international commerce are therefore likely to be among those with the most to gain from improvements in payment infrastructure.
What Still Needs to Change
Payment technology alone will not transform Ghana’s trade environment.
Businesses must understand how these systems work and how they can be incorporated into their existing financial and trade operations.
That requires boards and management teams to view payment infrastructure as a strategic tool for growth rather than simply a back-office banking function.
It also requires stronger treasury capabilities, digital literacy and financial planning among businesses, particularly SMEs.
Regulators, banks, fintech companies and trade organisations all have a role to play in closing this knowledge and implementation gap.
Banks, in particular, can help by educating customers, supporting onboarding, providing appropriate trade-finance solutions and helping businesses navigate the compliance, foreign-exchange and operational requirements associated with new payment channels.
Interoperability between banking platforms and regional payment networks will also be crucial. At the same time, cybersecurity, fraud prevention and anti-money-laundering controls must remain central as the infrastructure expands.
Ghana’s Next Chapter
Ghana occupies a strategically important position in Africa’s evolving trade and financial landscape. The country hosts the AfCFTA Secretariat, has been an early participant in PAPSS and has access to payment infrastructure connecting it to the Chinese financial system.
The opportunity now is to translate that strategic position into practical benefits for Ghanaian businesses.
If payment infrastructure continues to develop alongside trade policy, Ghana could become better positioned to trade competitively across Africa, settle more efficiently with major Asian partners and attract regional treasury, financial and headquarters functions.
But infrastructure is only valuable when businesses are equipped to use it.
Trade agreements open the doors. Efficient payment systems help businesses walk through them.
Ghana has an opportunity to strengthen its position at the centre of Africa’s emerging trade ecosystem. The next step is ensuring that its businesses — particularly its SMEs — have the knowledge, banking support and digital capability to take full advantage of that opportunity.
