Until recently, paying a supplier in Lagos from Accra usually meant routing cedi into dollars, through a correspondent bank abroad, into naira — several days, several fees, and an FX spread at each hop. For a low-margin trade, that friction can erase the profit.
A different settlement layer
The Pan-African Payment & Settlement System (PAPSS), launched by Afreximbank and African central banks, lets a payer send in their local currency and the payee receive in theirs, with settlement between central banks — no detour through the US dollar. Payments clear in near real time rather than days.
Why it matters for working capital
Faster settlement shortens the cash-conversion cycle. Capital that used to sit “in transit” for days is freed to fund the next trade — which is exactly the gap Sankofa finances.
At Sankofa Trade, cross-border settlement over PAPSS is free to the trader. We show you the interbank mid-market FX rate before you confirm and add a single, flat 0.5% — no hidden correspondent-bank spread buried in the exchange rate.