https://en.sputniknews.africa/20261109/money-that-stays-home-inside-africas-bid-for-financial-sovereignty--1090789241.html
Money That Stays Home: Inside Africa's Bid for Financial Sovereignty
Money That Stays Home: Inside Africa's Bid for Financial Sovereignty
Sputnik Africa
Africa trades more with the world than with itself—and mostly pays for it in currencies it does not print. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System and... 09.11.2026, Sputnik Africa
2026-11-09T15:22+0100
2026-11-09T15:22+0100
2026-11-09T15:06+0100
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Money That Stays Home: Inside Africa's Bid for Financial Sovereignty
Sputnik Africa
Africa trades more with the world than with itself—and mostly pays for it in currencies it does not print. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System and national currency settlements are not just technical tools; they are the building blocks of true financial sovereignty.
The AU’s Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, recently stressed that Africa has no shortage of vision; the plans exist. The resources exist. The talent exists. What's been missing is the capacity to finance and execute on its own terms. That framing matters, because it shifts the conversation away from aspiration and toward infrastructure. The question is not whether Africa should fund its own development. It is whether the machinery exists to move money across African borders cheaply, quickly, and in African currencies.In a sharp analysis, Jason Rosario Braganza, an independent development and development finance expert, explores how African countries can pay for industrialization without falling into new debt traps or depending on foreign currencies. He noted how the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPPS) is already helping countries trade in local currencies, the progress it has made so far, and the exciting potential of the initiative.Curious to hear more? Tune in to the full conversation on the Pan-African Frequency podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.In addition to the website, you can also catch our episodes on Telegram.► You can also listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Pocket Casts, Afripods, and Podcast Addict► Check out all the episodes of Pan-African Frequency
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sputnik africa, africa, podcasts, pan-africanism, african continental free trade area (afcfta), african union (au), african credit rating agency, development, sovereignty, currency, trade, global south, аудио
Money That Stays Home: Inside Africa's Bid for Financial Sovereignty
Africa trades more with the world than with itself—and mostly pays for it in currencies it does not print. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System and national currency settlements are not just technical tools; they are the building blocks of true financial sovereignty.
The AU’s Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, recently stressed that Africa has no shortage of vision; the plans exist. The resources exist. The talent exists. What's been missing is the capacity to finance and execute on its own terms. That framing matters, because it shifts the conversation away from aspiration and toward infrastructure. The question is not whether Africa should fund its own development. It is whether the machinery exists to move money across African borders cheaply, quickly, and in African currencies.
In a sharp analysis, Jason Rosario Braganza, an independent development and development finance expert, explores how African countries can pay for industrialization without falling into new debt traps or depending on foreign currencies. He noted how the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPPS) is already helping countries trade in local currencies, the progress it has made so far, and the exciting potential of the initiative.
“The cost of borrowing from international capital markets for an African country on average is four times the amount it is for other countries outside of the continent, just to give you a perspective of how biased and how suppressing and pressurizing these [Western] credit ratings can tend to be if you're trying to access finance [....] the Pan-African payment system is actually very exciting. It's one of the instruments that is being used to facilitate and implement as well as actualize the African Continental Free Trade Area. And what it does is, by allowing countries to settle their interactions and their trade interactions in local currency, what you're doing is avoiding the foreign currency fluctuation with regard to particularly the US dollar, the euro, and other international currencies that many of our local African currencies tend to be very volatile against, particularly now in the global international context where there are a lot of political instabilities that are translating into economic volatility and can by extension also affect exchange rates,” the expert said.
Curious to hear more? Tune in to the full conversation on the
Pan-African Frequency podcast, brought to you by
Sputnik Africa.In addition to the website, you can also catch our episodes on
Telegram.► Check out all the episodes of Pan-African Frequency 
