is a fintech leader, co-founder and CEO of meCash, specialising in cross-border payments for SMEs in emerging markets. With over a decade of experience at PayPal, Barclays, and Lloyds, she excels in regulatory transformation and strategic growth. Holding degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, she’s passionate about financial inclusion and technological advancement, operating between London, Rwanda, and Nigeria. In this interview with , she spoke about the challenges of Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) in reducing transaction costs and settlement times for Nigerian importers and exporters and PAPSS influence on foreign direct investment into the Nigeria economy.

I believe it will. It is Africa’s equivalent of SEPA and SWIFT for Euro and USD. PAPSS will enable payments connectivity – access to African markets. We will see eCommerce and digital sales increase as a result of PAPSS. Nigerian sellers will now be able to market its goods and products to other African markets – opening us to over one billion people marketplace for African fashion, consumer products, agricultural products, food, etc.

It is unclear how transaction fees will reduce in the interim. I believe on day 1, PAPSS will enable access to the market, ease of payments and faster settlements (from 5 days to the same day). I believe transaction fee will reduce overtime. Once volumes are established and as soon as financial institution players start seeing the value in holding African currency reserves to facilitate PAPSS transactions. Imagine Nigeria and Rwanda trade volumes going into the billions for agricultural products, fashion and digital services for example, we will start seeing Rwanda banks such as Bank of Kigali, Equity banks holding naira reserves and Nigeria banks such as Access, Providus holding Rwanda Franc reserves. That is where we will start seeing efficiency and cost reduction in transaction fees for users.

There will be an indirect impact. As businesses grow in value and size as marketplaces increases, we expect to see better liquidity and interest from foreign investors. There will also be global players that will enter the African market, as payment connectivity is resolved. However, these are medium/long term impact of PAPSS in my view.

I personally don’t see any incremental security risks to PASPSS versus existing domestic payments or SWIFT rails. PAPSS drive cross border payments – today, the biggest means of making cross border payments is informal agents – unregulated individuals and agents and dealing with limited liquidity. These transactions are mostly unseen to the CBN today. They are informal and unregulated.

PAPSS is pan African in nature, so all 55 African countries’ central banks allow local settlement connectivity. However, PAPSS is currently restricted to commercial banks. I will argue that this is limited in distribution, Fintechs and innovators must also be at the centre of driving innovation, change and infrastructure building to drive PAPSS adoption. We would like to see the CBN driving this for Nigerian fintechs; who I must say are at the forefront of innovation on the continent.

I don’t see competitors. PAPSS as a single solution cannot solve intra Africa payments. We must have many innovators – local and international, building the different building blocks of payments connectivity. Same way that we see in the US or Europe today. PAPSS should be focused on partnership to drive growth and distribution. It should be an “all welcome” play. Protectionism is a killer of innovation and it doesn’t ultimately serve the customers.

I will argue for regional negotiations focused – it is beyond just tariffs; it is also about movement restrictions and multi regulatory frameworks. Nigeria should really be leading the West African implementation of AfCFTA as the biggest economy in this part of Africa. Walls built by tariff don’t work and we don’t have the luxury of building walls – our young people are about connectivity, growth, expansion and will “japa” anywhere there is freedom for growth, prosperity and openness. Nigeria should be using these as the core pillars of its AfCFTA implementation.

The eNaira was innovative as an idea and we must commend the CBN for this innovation. Also, 30M wallets on day one far exceeds what we have seen with other central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, its lack of decentralisation and no marginal difference in terms of use or cost just didn’t resonate with Nigerians eager to get into the digital assets space. eNaira 2.0 must be geared towards decentralisation. I must be able to get eNaira on an exchange in the UK, Mexico or US. I shouldn’t need to have a BVN, Nigerian bank account or even be a Nigerian to access the eNaira. Decentralisatoon will drive adoption. A core use case is cross border trade. Chinese, Europeans or anybody in any part of the world will be able to buy goods and services from a Nigerian business in Ekiti. A decentralised eNaira can really be one of many catalysts of trade – money flow in Nigeria; and I am not talking about remittance. I am talking about the ability of someone in any part of the world to buy goods and services from someone in Nigeria.

What are the potential risks and benefits of the eNaira 2.0 in relation to Nigeria’s existing financial infrastructure?

Competition, better value for users and Nigerian businesses. None of these are bad for Nigerians, Nigerian businesses or the government. Nigerian existing financial infrastructure is geared towards domestic money movement. It serves corporates and institutions well enough; but it doesn’t serve retails and SMEs as well as it should. Until the emergence of challenger banks/Fintechs in Nigeria, you couldn’t open a bank account without visiting a physical branch. Now, we have a whole generation of young people that are financially inclusive, carrying out day to day banking and have never had to visit a bank branch. Fintechs brought in these innovations. We must leverage this approach to digital assets such as eNaira and other digital assets products and services. It is not about competing with existing financial infrastructure, it is about building connectivity, innovating and delivering value to Nigerian retail and SMEs; which will in turn add to the tax coffers, drive growth and prosperity for the entire country.