Access Bank MD Urges Stronger African Payment Systems
By: Solomon Nartey Tetteh
Managing Director of Access Bank Ghana, Pearl Nkrumah, has called for the strengthening of Africa’s financial and payment systems to enable seamless cross-border trade and unlock greater financing opportunities, particularly for women-led businesses.
Speaking at the African Prosperity Dialogues on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, Ms. Nkrumah said attracting global financing into Africa goes beyond capital availability and depends largely on the enabling structures countries put in place to support trade, payments and investment.
“When we talk about financing and tapping into the world outside Africa, it is really about countries having the right enabling structures that allow the world to come in,” she said,
She also noted that Ghana and other African countries are already experimenting with blended financing models through partnerships within and outside the continent.
Ms. Nkrumah explained that financing must be linked to productive use, stressing the importance of collaboration, intra-African trade and accessible platforms that allow businesses, especially women-owned enterprises to scale beyond small and medium-sized operations.
“How do a woman in Ghana, produce goods, ship them to other countries and get paid back here seamlessly. If she moves from being just an SME to a supplier or procurement partner working with someone in Brazil or elsewhere, that partnership brings financing into Ghana as well,” she stressed.
Ms. Nkrumah said there are multiple avenues for raising capital, both domestically and internationally, but the priority should be creating smooth and fluid platforms that connect African entrepreneurs to markets and strategic partners across regions.
She noted that banks play a critical role in this process by working with central banks, governments and other financial institutions to build systems that support trade and payments.
According to her, Access Bank is actively creating products, marketplaces and structures that allow funds and goods to move seamlessly across borders.
Highlighting progress made so far, she referenced the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which was designed to enable payments among African countries. However, she admitted significant challenges remain.
Access Bank MD highlighted that reliance on the US dollar undermines the efficiency of Africa’s payment platforms and called for renewed commitment towards a single African currency, such as the proposed Eco.
“We’ve solved part of the problem by creating a payment platform across Africa, but we cannot continue using the dollar as the single settlement currency,” she said.
She cited Access Africa, an Access Bank platform operating across 14 African countries, which allows customers to send money across borders using local currencies. While this eases transactions for customers, she acknowledged that banks still rely on US dollars behind the scenes for settlement.
Ms. Nkrumah expressed optimism that continued policy dialogue and stronger collaboration among African institutions would turn conversations into execution and accelerate the move towards a single African currency.
