FirstBank lets customers send money across Africa in local currencies via PAPSS

FirstBank customers can now send money to people and businesses in other African countries straight from the bank's mobile and online channels, with the money arriving in the recipient's local currency.

The transfers run on the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a platform built to let African countries settle trade among themselves in their own currencies rather than through the US dollar.

For an ordinary customer, the difference shows up in the steps that are no longer needed. There is no scrambling for dollars, no correspondent bank details to fill in, and no waiting days for funds to clear through banks outside the continent.

According to FirstBank, the service is built into its LIT App, FirstMobile and FirstOnline channels. A customer logs in, picks PAPSS as the transfer option, enters the beneficiary's name, bank, account number and country, and sends the money in naira. The bank says the recipient gets it in their local currency in two minutes or less.

What it costs and who can use it

FirstBank said individuals can send up to the naira equivalent of $2,000 a month, while businesses can send up to $5,000, within the documentation allowed under Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rules. The bank said its fees are well below what correspondent banking transfers usually cost.

The bank gave everyday examples of who stands to gain: a trader in Onitsha paying a supplier in Nairobi, a parent in Abuja paying school fees for a child in Kigali, or a business in Ibadan receiving payment from a customer in Zimbabwe without invoicing in dollars.

PAPSS currently connects 28 African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, as well as Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Nigerian banks could not use the system fully until March last year, when the CBN introduced the SSA-3 settlement model. Under that arrangement, banks such as FirstBank fund their own settlement accounts with Afreximbank, and PAPSS delivers the local currency value on the other side, settling the difference between banks once a day.

The bank acknowledged that the system will not remove every hurdle at once. Regulatory requirements still apply, transaction limits remain, and wider adoption will take time.

Still, the shift matters for a continent where trade between neighbours has long been slowed not by lack of buyers and sellers but by the difficulty of paying them. Sending money across a border, the bank argues, is now closer to making a transfer across town.