Ethiopia has joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), connecting the country’s financial institutions to the continent’s cross-border payment network.
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and PAPSS announced the move on 15 October 2026 at a joint press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, held on the sidelines of the Ethiopia Finance Forum. Eyob Tekalign, Governor of the NBE, and Mike Ogbalu III, chief executive of PAPSS, announced it.
What joining means for Ethiopian banks
According to the statement, distributed by APO Group on behalf of Afreximbank, Ethiopia’s participation lets financial institutions in the country connect to PAPSS and take part in cross-border payments with counterparts elsewhere in Africa. The NBE, the country’s central bank, regulates its banks and oversees the national payment system.
“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. “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 joining “an important milestone”. “It connects Ethiopian financial institutions to a growing continental payments infrastructure and opens new opportunities for cross-border payments with the rest of Africa,” he said.
The announcement did not name the Ethiopian banks that will connect first, or give a date for the first live transactions.
A network that has been adding members all year
PAPSS was set up under the auspices of Afreximbank (the African Export-Import Bank), the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to support intra-African trade. Ethiopia is the latest addition this year: the Bank of Central African States joined in July, connecting the 6 countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community.
When PAPSS last gave network figures, on 11 September 2026, it said it operated in more than 30 African countries, connecting 24 national and regional central banks, more than 200 commercial banks and payment service providers, and 16 switches. About 10 countries joined during 2026. The same briefing reported transaction volumes up about 1,000% year on year, without giving absolute figures.
Addis Ababa to host COWRY 2026
The NBE and PAPSS also confirmed that Addis Ababa will host the second edition of PAPSS COWRY, the network’s payments conference, on 26 and 27 November 2026 at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel. The theme is “Scaling Africa’s Sovereign Payments: From Continental Connectivity to Global Integration”.
The organisers expect more than 1,000 delegates, over 60 speakers and more than 35 exhibition booths. Sessions will cover cross-border payments, local currency settlement, interoperability, AI, stablecoins, digital assets and cybersecurity.
“Our ambition is to deliver an African-owned conference to the standards of any leading international payments conference,” Ogbalu said.
PAPSS said in September that it would use the conference to set out its next phase, when the focus moves from building the network to getting banks, fintechs and switches to use it. Holding it in Addis Ababa puts Ethiopia’s newly connected institutions in the room where that plan is announced.
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