RIYADH: Banks in Egypt are looking to join an African payment system as the country continues to battle against the continued devaluation of its currency against the US dollar. Financial institutions from the nation, including its central bank, have held talks with the African Export-Import Bank, also known as Afreximbank, to explore the possibility of activating Egypt"s accession to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, or PAPSS. The country"s addition to the platform will also help overcome the foreign exchange shortage. Afreximbank’s President Benedict Orama revealed that Egypt is set to join PAPSS as it is in the process of changing its exchange rate mechanism. “The system, known as PAPSS, uses dollar exchange rates at the moment, but we are working with central banks to develop an exchange rate mechanism that would allow Africa’s 42 currencies to be convertible between themselves,” Orama informed. The vast majority of intra-African trade takes place through remittances into dollars, and initiatives such as PAPSS and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement seek to boost business by reducing barriers. Afreximbank is making extensive efforts to implement commercial transactions through the PAPSS platform which was launched in January 2022. PAPSS has made large investments in its technological infrastructure with the aim of making commercial transactions successful in the shortest time and with a high degree of safety. Afreximbank has started activating the work of the PAPSS platform with West African countries, which has proven successful in sending and receiving remittances when dealing with trading partners in African countries in the currency of each country. The bank expects that 15 to 20 countries will join PAPSS by the end of the year, according to Orama. The platform started its commercial operations with nine countries that have signed up so far. Over the past years, Afreximbank has succeeded in providing liquidity rates of foreign exchange to Egypt through cooperation with the central bank and Egyptian banks as well as financing businessmen and companies to expand their business in African countries, according to Christiane Abu Lehaf, the bank’s international cooperation officer.