Lagos, Nigeria — Access Bank Plc has announced the integration of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) into its flagship digital platform, AccessMore, marking a major milestone in the bank’s drive to promote seamless intra-African payments. The initiative reinforces Access Bank’s commitment to strengthening financial inclusion and cross-border trade across the continent.
To commemorate the integration, the Chief Executive Officer of PAPSS, Mike Ogbalu III, paid a courtesy visit to Access Bank’s headquarters in Lagos, where he held strategic discussions with Chizoma Okoli, Deputy Managing Director, and Seyi Kumapayi, Executive Director, African Subsidiaries. The meeting focused on optimizing PAPSS’ integration within AccessMore to deliver real-time, cost-effective, and secure payment services across Africa.
Speaking on the development, Okoli described the partnership as a pivotal step toward unifying Africa’s payment systems.
“The integration of PAPSS into the AccessMore app is a significant milestone in our mission to harmonize Africa’s payment landscape. With Access Bank’s extensive footprint across the continent, this collaboration ensures that millions of our customers can now enjoy faster, more efficient, and transparent cross-border transactions,” she said.
“Our goal is to leverage this synergy to unlock innovations that connect Africa seamlessly, and we are delighted to partner with PAPSS in realizing this vision.”
Ogbalu, CEO of PAPSS, lauded the partnership as transformative for African trade and financial integration.
“Our collaboration with Access Bank is a game-changer for cross-border trade and payments across Africa. The integration of PAPSS on AccessMore allows individuals, SMEs, and corporates to transact effortlessly across borders, supporting the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” he stated.
“We’ve built the rail, and Access Bank has the network and customers. Together, we can drive innovations that leverage this infrastructure to benefit users across the continent.”
Adding perspective on Access Bank’s broader strategy, Kumapayi emphasized that the partnership aligns with the institution’s pan-African growth vision.
“Access Bank’s ambition is to be the world’s most respected African bank, and collaborations like this are essential to achieving that. By embedding PAPSS into AccessMore, we’re creating new pathways for financial connectivity across our subsidiaries in over a dozen African markets,” he explained.
“PAPSS offers a cost-effective framework for cross-border transactions. To maximize its impact, we must drive communication, engagement, and synchronized rollouts across multiple markets. With the right momentum, we can accelerate adoption and scale this innovation continent-wide.”
The integration positions Access Bank as a key driver in advancing Africa’s payment interoperability agenda. Customers can now send and receive funds across borders directly through AccessMore, enjoying a simplified, reliable, and faster experience.
The initiative is managed under Access Bank’s Payments and Remittances Group, which oversees AccessAfrica—the bank’s proprietary cross-border payments platform—and its network of international remittance partnerships. Currently operational in Nigeria and 11 other African subsidiaries, AccessAfrica enables payments to over 140 global destinations through multiple channels, including branches, USSD, Internet Banking, and the AccessMore app.
Through these interconnected systems, Access Bank continues to strengthen its leadership in cross-border and remittance solutions, facilitating person-to-person (P2P), business-to-person (B2P), and business-to-business (B2B) transfers across more than 20 currencies and 20,000 global banking networks.
The PAPSS integration underscores Access Bank’s growing role in shaping Africa’s digital financial ecosystem and advancing the continent’s move toward a truly unified payment landscape.
