Onafriq aids Ghanaian SMEs to expand mobile money, bank payments

MR Dare Okoudjou, Founder and Chief Ex­ecutive Officer (CEO) of Onafriq, says the platform has the potential to connect mobile money and bank accounts across 54 African countries.

He stated that by leveraging the digital infrastructure of the Pan-African Payment and Settle­ment System (PAPSS), the On­afriq system would enable Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana to use their mo­bile money and bank accounts to make and receive payments from all 54 African countries.

Such a situation, Mr Ok­oudjou said, did not enable the promotion of financial inclusivity with regards to the free move­ment of trade and currencies on the African continent.

Mr Okoudjou said this during the media launch of a cross-bor­der payment service by Onafriq in collaboration with the Pan-Af­rican Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) in Accra on Thursday.

The purpose of the cross-bor­der payment service, which was being piloted in Ghana, was to improve financial interoperability by making transactions faster, more convenient, and cost-effec­tive for SMEs individuals.

Banks partnering with PAPSS and Onafriq’s authorised fintech, mobile money service providers, and traditional partners in Ghana could enable their customers to send or receive money directly into mobile wallets and bank accounts.

“When you take ECOWAS, I can move around with my identi­fication card and go to a number of countries. This is very real. Goods are moving freely a bit on the roads, but the movement of money is still a problem,” Mr Okoudjou said.

According to him, Onafriq had been able to on-board all the banks in Nigeria and Ghana to the payment service with re­gards to the receiving of monies through bank accounts.

However, he noted that Onafriq was opened to bring on-board banks that were interested in the payment service provided they met the criteria of compli­ance and security and customer protection.

Furthermore, Mr Okoudjou said that SMEs in Ghana would eventually be able transfer money to all 54 countries in Africa through their mobile money wal­lets and bank accounts following the piloting of the cross-border payment service in Ghana.

“Right now, we are starting with Nigeria, and as we men­tioned, in the next few weeks, we will open up to more countries and neighbouring countries. Currently, Onafriq is present in 43 countries, so those will be available immediately.

And then there are countries that we are still adding to our net­work and that of PAPSS network. Eventually, when you combine those two networks, we should reach all 54 African countries,” Mr Okoudjou said.

Additionally, he said that the transaction fee to be charged for any form of transaction through the cross-border payment service would be determined by the telecommunication networks and banks that would partner with Onafriq and PAPSS.

The Chief Executive Offi­cer (CEO) of PAPSS, Mr Mike Ogbalu, explained that success of the partnership between Onafriq and PAPSS, lied in increased trade volumes, reduced transaction fees, improved working capital for businesses, and a more prosper­ous African continent.

He said that such a partner­ship would empower businesses to trade in local currencies, reduc­ing cost and accelerating inven­tory turnover, thereby boosting trade on the African continent.

Mr Ogbalu added that over 150 commercial banks in 16 countries had been connected to PAPSS since its inception in the African payment landscape, with an average transaction time of seven seconds.

 BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY

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