The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched a new Digital Retail Payments Platform (DRPP) designed to cut transaction costs and enable businesses to settle cross-border deals in local currencies.
Unveiled at the COMESA Business Forum in Kenya, the system is part of a continent-wide push to reduce reliance on hard currencies like the US dollar for intra-African trade. The DRPP will begin with a pilot phase connecting Malawi and Zambia.
The platform directly addresses chronic challenges faced by businesses, particularly Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which constitute 80% of all businesses and 60% of employment in the bloc. These challenges include costly and complex cross-border payments, the need to convert local currencies into dollars or euros, limited access to financial services, and low digital literacy.
By providing an “instant, inclusive, and affordable cross-border payment system,” the DRPP aims to solve these issues. Its key benefits include enabling local currency transactions, reducing costs, improving interoperability between different financial providers, enhancing security, and promoting financial inclusion through easy access.
The platform is being launched with two digital financial services providers and a foreign exchange provider, though their names were not disclosed. It was developed under the COMESA Clearing House (CCH) and is designed to connect with banks, mobile money operators, and fintech companies.
Kenya’s Trade Minister, Lee Kinyanjui, hailed the initiative as a breakthrough.
“For the first time,cross-border trade within COMESA can be settled directly in local currencies,” he said. “This is a game-changer. We are showing how traders can exchange value easily without relying on scarce foreign currency.”
In a related move to strengthen regional financial architecture, Kenya’s President William Ruto, the new chair of COMESA, announced that Kenya has increased its shareholding in key regional banks. The country has committed an additional US$100 million to the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) and US$50 million to the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
“One of the best ways for Africa, and for regional groups like COMESA, is to strengthen our own financial institutions,” Ruto stated.
Kenya’s increased stake in TDB, a development bank established in 1985, allows the country to access long-term financing with repayment periods of up to 25 years at favorable interest rates.
Alongside the payments platform, COMESA also launched an electronic Certificate of Origin (eCO) in Nairobi. This digital system replaces paper-based documentation to speed up border clearance, reduce fraud, and advance the region’s Digital Free Trade Area. The eCO is being adopted by Eswatini, Zambia, and Malawi, with Zimbabwe expected to follow.
President Ruto also urged African nations to lift visa restrictions to boost trade, noting that intra-African trade stands at only 14%, compared to 70% in Europe. Kenya has already removed visa requirements for other African nationals, leading to a significant rise in visitors.
The DRPP is expected to increase the use of digital cross-border payments among MSMEs, protecting businesses from currency risk and lowering costs. By simplifying transactions, the platform aims to empower SMEs, women, and youth to engage more in regional trade, fostering more inclusive economic growth across the bloc.
COMESA comprises 21 member states, including Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. With a population of over 640 million and a combined Gross Domestic Product of approximately US$1,0 trillion, COMESA represents a major marketplace for both internal and external trade.
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