Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has called on African leaders and citizens to be united in promoting the continent’s intrinsic greatness through improved trade relations among African countries.
Dangote spoke at the formal launch of the pan-African payment and settlement system (PAPSS), which is a centralised payment and settlement infrastructure platform for intra-African trade and commerce payments in Accra, Ghana on January 13.
Dangote, who was represented at the occasion by the group managing director of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Olakunle Alake, lauded the African Union in collaboration with the Afreximbank for the launch of the PAPSS, which he noted was aimed at facilitating payments across the continent.
He asserted that improved trade relations would greatly enhance the speed of recovery across Africa, noting that it had the potential to boost the level of economic activities through intra-Africa trade.
He also said that the advent of PAPSS would greatly address challenges such as high-cost, lengthy correspondent banking relationships, delays, among many others, and therefore ease transactions among businesses across Africa.
Dangote equally expressed optimism that PAPSS would enhance the volume of trade among countries, which were hitherto not recorded or were overlooked because of the informal approach towards these transactions.
Thanking all the member countries and organisations who contributed to the success of PAPSS by playing key roles leading to launch of the project, he invoked the words of Ghana’s first President and Prime Minister, and renowned promoter of Pan Africanism, Kwame Nkrumah, stressing that “the forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater…”
