This archive report was first published on 25 August 2021.
Published on August 25, 2021, the East African Community (EAC) and Comesa are working on a digital payment system to facilitate informal cross-border trade within the Comesa bloc.
The new system aims to replace existing systems and prevent disputes arising from overlapping systems.
A public-private partnership dialogue is underway to discuss a draft model policy for the Comesa platform, which is designed to benefit micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) under the bloc's Digital Financial Inclusion Project.
The platform seeks to integrate informal traders into formal markets through better access to digital finance systems.
The common regional scheme aims to facilitate bottom-of-the-pyramid informal traders to carry out transparent, affordable, and secured digital transactions.
Other countries in the pilot phase include Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia, Mauritius, and Egypt.
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda also operate under the East African Payment System (EAPS), which handled $681 million worth of transactions in 2018, according to the Central Bank of Kenya.
Under EAPS, transactions are cleared through the respective central banks using SWIFT, while local banks are required to maintain pre-funded accounts in all local currencies, with the central banks facilitating settlements.
