Kenya, COMESA launches Digital Retail Payments Platform aimed to reduce transaction costs in the 21-nation bloc

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa established a digital payments system on Thursday aimed at reducing transaction ￰0￱ bloc said that the new system will allow businesses to settle deals in local ￰1￱ 21-member bloc has joined efforts by the African continent to promote local currency payment systems, aiming to reduce trade costs by eliminating the need to convert local currencies into other currencies for cross-border ￰2￱ announced that the new Digital Retail Payments Platform will commence with trials between Malawi and ￰3￱ seeks to cut trade costs with a new payment system The COMESA Digital Retail Payment Platform (DRPP) is a game-changer for regional ￰4￱ the 24th COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government, I underscored the importance of the DRPP as an instant, inclusive, and affordable cross-border payment system that keeps… ￰5￱ — Hon Lee Kinyanjui (@GovLeeKinyanjui) October 9, 2025 The bloc also revealed that the new digital payment system is being rolled out in partnership with two digital financial services providers and a foreign exchange ￰6￱ didn’t specify the names of the partners.

Kenya’s trade minister, Lee Kinyanjui, acknowledged that the initiative is aimed at assisting medium, small, and micro ￰7￱ revealed that these enterprises account for 8% of businesses and 60% of employment in member states, but must deal with insecure and expensive cross-border payment systems. “For the first time, cross-border trade within COMESA can be settled directly in local ￰8￱ is a ￰9￱ are demonstrating how traders can exchange value seamlessly without relying on scarce foreign currency.” -Lee Kinyanjui, Trade Minister of ￰10￱ also maintained that the payments platform will aim to keep costs under 3% of the transaction value. Kenya’s President William Ruto, who took over the chairmanship of COMESA from Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishime, has called for increased integration to boost trade on the ￰11￱ revealed that Kenya has increased its shareholding in regional trade finance banks, including TDB by $100 million and Afreximbank by $50 ￰12￱ said the initiative shows Kenya’s commitment to deepening trade ￰13￱ President also argued that strengthening local multilateral financial institutions is one of the most viable pathways for Africa and for regional economic blocs, such as ￰14￱ launches the electronic Certificate of Origin Last week, Kenya and the COMESA Secretariat launched the bloc’s electronic Certificate of Origin in Nairobi, which replaced the paper-based origin certification with a digital ￰15￱ bloc stated that the initiative aims to expedite border clearance, curb fraud, and align the region with the Digital Free Trade ￰16￱ new certification is already being adopted by Eswatini, Zambia, and Malawi, as of August 1, 2025.

Zimbabwe, which had previously stopped accepting paper certificates altogether, is also expected to adopt ￰17￱ World Bank’s ‘Trading Across Borders’ metrics revealed that a standard Kenyan export shipment usually takes around 19 hours of documentary compliance and 16 hours of border ￰18￱ are also out-of-pocket costs of around $191 for documentary compliance and $143 for border compliance, as of the last published ￰19￱ report also showed that some Sub-Saharan countries face worse conditions, with some ports having more than 200 hours of border ￰20￱ WTO estimated that the full implementation of trade-facilitation initiatives can lower trade costs by an average of 14.3%, with developing economies experiencing the largest proportional ￰21￱ and the AU are already wiring payments through the Pan-African Payments and Settlement system, which links around 16 central banks and over 140 banks as of ￰22￱ Were, director of ICT at the Ministry of Industry, acknowledged that the launch of eCO reaffirms Kenya’s commitment to making trade more efficient, transparent, and inclusive for ￰23￱ Director of Trade and Customs at COMESA said the initiative is a clear demonstration of Kenya’s commitment to promoting efficiency, competitiveness, transparency, and trust in regional ￰24￱ utilise the Certificate of Origin to access trade benefits under regional agreements, including the COMESA, the East African Community (EAC), and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The certification was previously manual, which required physical applications, printed certificates, and in-person ￰25￱ seen where it ￰26￱ in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.