Digital Fraud Surges 88% as PAPSS Adoption Stalls at 11%, Exposing Cross-Border Finance Fragility
Digital fraud across African cross-border finance has surged 88 percent, while adoption of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System stands at just 11 percent, exposing structural fragility in the continent's intra-trade financial infrastructure. The combined figures underscore the gap between available regional payment architecture and actual market uptake.
PAPSS: fraud is doing the work that slow adoption couldn't
The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System was built to let African countries pay each other in local currencies, cutting out the dollar detour. Only 11% of institutions have actually connected to it.
Now 88% of those same institutions report rising digital fraud across their cross-border channels — and the survey finds they're responding by pulling back to their home markets.
That retreat is the real damage. PAPSS's adoption problem was already bad; fraud is now giving institutions a live reason to stop trying. The security crisis and the stalled integration aren't two separate stories — one is accelerating the other.