Ghana is partnering with Rwanda, Zambia and other African countries to pilot a continental digital trade corridor aimed at improving integration and interoperability in cross-border financial transactions. Vice-President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang announced the initiative while speaking at the ‘3i Africa Summit’ in Accra on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
According to her, the pilot project will focus on mobile money interoperability, mutual recognition of digital identity systems for cross-border know-your-customer (KYC) processes, and harmonisation of electronic invoicing systems across participating countries. “The objective is for a Ghanaian enterprise to be able to invoice clients and receive payments in cedis directly, efficiently and at a reasonable cost,” she said.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang explained that the initiative follows recent upgrades to Ghana’s payment infrastructure to support seamless cross-border transactions. She noted that many intra-African financial transactions are currently routed through payment systems outside the continent, increasing costs and delays while undermining efforts to establish a single African market.
The Vice-President said progress had already been made through the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, adding that the African Continental Free Trade Area Digital Trade Protocol adopted by the African Union in 2024 provides a framework to reduce payment delays through mobile money interoperability and electronic trade processes. She, however, did not provide a timeline for the implementation of the proposed digital corridor.
Also speaking at the summit, Clara B. Arthur said [Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) was migrating Ghana’s payment systems to the ISO 20022 global financial messaging standard.
She explained that the transition would enable Ghana’s financial infrastructure to operate on the same technical framework as leading global financial markets, improving transaction data quality and speeding up settlements.
“By adopting the standard, Ghana’s payment systems will speak the same language as the world’s leading financial infrastructure and markets,” she stated.
Arthur added that GhIPSS was prepared to connect with other instant payment systems across Africa, stressing that the future of digital finance lies in cross-border interoperability.
She further disclosed that following the passage of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, GhIPSS had begun engaging virtual asset providers to support shared infrastructure for innovation, regulation and financial inclusion.