Absa weighs joining yuan platform on thriving China-Africa trade

Absa Group is weighing joining a payments platform that facilitates direct settlement in Chinese currency, to take advantage of growing trade with Africa’s biggest trading partner.

The lender plans to integrate with China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, or CIPS, which is Beijing’s global-payments solution for yuan-denominated transactions, according to Abdi Mohamed, chief executive officer of the South African bank’s Kenyan unit.

“We are a key part of the early conversations on the system, what it could mean for the continent in terms of an opportunity and as a platform,” he said in an interview in Kigali, Rwanda on Friday.

“It’s a good addition to the global payment systems that we already have.”

Africa’s biggest lender, Standard Bank Group, became the first in the region to connect directly to CIPS in November, processing R9.5 billion  ($572 million) in transactions in the past six months. Ecobank Transnational CEO Jeremy Awori said separately