Dr. Donald Kaberuka and the SouthBridge Group team attend the Pan-African Payment & Settlement System commercial launch event.

The SouthBridge Group team (Dr. Donald Kaberuka, John Birungi, Yves Mafolo, and Norbert Musana) attended Pan-African Payment & Settlement System – PAPSS commercial launch event on January 13. PAPSS, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, is a joint initiative by Afreximbank and the African Union that will make it possible for Africans to settle intra-African trade transactions in their local currencies and above all contribute to boosting intra-African trade. “PAPSS is going to be the single most important thing in African integration since 1963” said Dr. Donald Kaberuka, Chairman of SouthBridge Group.
In his speech at the Gala Dinner, Dr. Kaberuka started by acknowledging one of his predecessors as former AfDB President –Babacar N’diaye– for his foresight in setting up African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), he then thanked the current management at Afreximbank and the PAPSS team for this initiative.
He also encouraged Africans not to undersell themselves and celebrate this monumental moment in African integration. “Let us celebrate PAPSS because quite often, we underestimate what we do which overtime produces the intended outcomes” he said.
He went on to say that it is important to look at PAPSS not simply as a financial mechanism to get real time payment across borders or to get informal trade back into formality. It is more than that; it is a response to a failing international architecture that has prompted Africa into depending on itself and developing its own solutions.
In his closing remarks, he reminded the audience that when the AU was set up in 1963, leaders took a wise decision not to touch the existing borders. This decision came with another agreement: to do everything we can to accelerate African economic integration by making these borders as less relevant as we can. “PAPSS gives us that opportunity” he said.

Share this article