Central African Bank Accelerates Financial Integration with PAPS Adoption

The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) has officially joined the Pan-African Payment System (PAPS), marking a significant step toward seamless digital payments across Africa. This inclusion will allow businesses and consumers in six countries—Cameroon, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Central African Republic—to make instant cross-border transactions.

PAPS is designed to facilitate low-cost, high-speed payments between African nations, addressing a major barrier to intra-African trade. The system currently connects 16 countries with over 450 million people, enabling businesses to receive payments in local currencies that are automatically converted at the official exchange rates.

Ghana Reopens 5G License Auction Amid Slow Rollout

Ghana is inviting new bidders for its 5G licenses after an initial exclusive allocation failed to deliver expected results. The country initially granted sole rights to Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) in 2024, but the rollout has been slower than anticipated.

With major telecom operators like MTN Ghana and Telecel expressing readiness to participate, the auction could accelerate 5G deployment across the nation, potentially benefiting both consumers and businesses with faster mobile internet speeds and new applications.

Moniepoint VP on Building Scalable Fintech Infrastructure

Opeyemi Folorunsho, Vice President of Research & Development at Moniepoint, shared insights on engineering for rapid growth in a recent interview. He emphasized the importance of:

  • Designing systems that can handle billions of transactions with low latency
  • Prioritizing developer productivity as an infrastructure concern
  • Focusing on solutions that reduce complexity rather than adding it
  • Building internal platforms to support scaling across multiple regions

Folorunsho noted that at Moniepoint, R&D involves translating technical ideas into real-world impact while ensuring systems can handle increasing transaction volumes and maintain reliability.