Kenya President William Ruto has urged African leaders to sign up for the pan-African payments system to facilitate trade within the continent to reduce reliance on the US dollar.

He urged his peers in Africa to mobilise central and commercial banks to join the Pan-African Payments and Settlement System, which was launched in January 2022, Business Daily newspaper reported.

The system for intra-African trade was developed by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), an initiative backed by the African Union and African central banks.

“We are all struggling to make payments for goods and services from one country to another because of differences in currencies,” the president told an AfCFTA forum in Nairobi.

“There has been a mechanism where all our traders can trade in the local currency, and we leave it to the Afreximbank to settle all the payments. We do not have to look for dollars,” he said, seeking settlement of payment through local currencies.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)