On the sidelines of the 2025 Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2025), which took place in Abuja from 25 to 28 June 2025, a ceremony was held to launch the PAPSS African Currency Marketplace (PACM). This launch was made under the collaboration of the Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and strategic with Interstellar, an African high-tech company. The announcement was made on July 7, 2025, in Abuja, in a press release

PAPSS African Currency Marketplace (PACM), the next generation Financial Markets Infrastructure (IMF) represents a bold evolution of the PAPSS mission. This meets the long-standing challenge of the inconvertibility of currencies in Africa and allows sovereign and fluid monetary exchange for intra-African trade. For decades, Africa's economic momentum has been hampered by a fragmented financial landscape. The continent's 41 currencies, the diversity of regulatory environments, and the lack of convertibility have created significant friction

According to Mike Ogbalu III, CEO of PAPSS, “the PAPSS African Currency Marketplace is completely transparent; it operates on the basis of an order book and operates with trusted counterparties, respecting strictly local regulatory frameworks and global best practices.” To trade with neighboring countries, African businesses have often had to use foreign (hard) currencies for their foreign exchange transactions, creating what experts call the “bottleneck of hard and expensive currencies.” This workaround results in around 5 billion US dollars in fees, delays, and opportunity costs every year, hurting the competitiveness of African businesses and slowing progress towards the realization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This launch marks a major strategic step in the PAPSS journey

The PAPSS African Currency Marketplace, developed jointly by PAPSS and Interstellar, allows the direct exchange of African currencies without using hard currencies. As a transparent, continent-wide, and peer-to-peer platform, it allows businesses to transact directly in local currencies in near real time, while still complying with national regulations.