Streamlining transactions in Pan-African countries through PAPSS

AfriPay is a mobile app concept that helps individuals and businesses send and receive cross-border payments between Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe using PAPSS for faster local-currency settlement.

Africa’s cross-border payments are still affected by fragmented infrastructure, multiple currency conversions, and high costs. PAPSS was created to enable local-currency clearing and settlement across African countries, but the “last mile” challenge remains turning the infrastructure into a consistent retail user experience.

Role: Product Designer

Platform: Mobile App (iOS/Android)

Users: Individuals, SMEs, merchants, freelancers

Markets: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe

Deliverables: User flows, wireframes, UI, prototype, UX copy, key states (success/fail/pending), usability feedback summary

Team: 2 Designers, 1 Product Manager, 2 Mobile Engineers (iOS & Android), 4 Backend Engineers, 2 DevOps Engineers, 1 QA Engineer, 2 Infosec Engineers

Timeline: 3 Weeks 4 days (17/11/2025 - 12/12/2025)

Tools: Figma, FigJam, Miro, Azure Boards

People and SMEs who trade across borders need a way to pay and get paid without hidden fees, unclear FX rates, and long settlement times. In many corridors, sending money can still be costly, and users often feel unsure whether a payment will go through or when it will arrive.

Know the full cost before confirming (fees + FX + total)

Send money in a few steps, and track status clearly

Save recipients and repeat payments easily (especially for businesses)

Track progress without contacting support.

Transaction success rate: > 98%

Average settlement time (PAPSS): < 60 seconds

Average settlement time (fallback rails): < 24 hours

Platform uptime: 99.5% +

I'm the lead product designer for this project. I collaborated with Kabiru (Product Designer) and Bolu (Product Manager) throughout this project.

As the Lead Product Designer, I focused on making PAPSS feel usable at the customer level by designing:

A consistent multi-country onboarding + wallet experience

A simple send flow (individual and business)

Clear pricing, FX, and status updates

Failure recovery (retry, edit details, support handoff)

UI patterns that scale across four markets

AfriPayTag for simple cross-border transfers: Instead of long account details, users can send to a memorable AfriPayTag that resolves the recipient’s details (name, country, linked wallet/account, currency).

Multi-currency wallets + local payouts: AfriPay supports wallets across NGN, GHS, KES, and ZWL, with local withdrawals routed through domestic rails (e.g., NIP, GhIPSS, PesaLink/RTGS, ZIPSS).

Intelligent routing (PAPSS first, fallback when needed): The routing engine selects the best available rail per corridor (PAPSS where available; alternate rails where needed) to balance speed, cost, and reliability.

Built for individuals and businesses: AfriPay supports single transfers and bulk payments, so businesses can pay multiple recipients across different countries in one flow.

Onboarding (individual + business)

Send money (single transfer)

Bulk payments (business)

Tag collisions/spoofing: strict rules + availability checks

FX volatility: short FX rate locks (60–90 seconds) for confirmation screens

PAPSS downtime: fallback rails + clear “what happens next” messaging

Disputes/refunds: ledger-first reversals coordinated with settlement adjustments

Modeled reduction in transaction costs by 50–70% and settlement time from days to seconds when routed through PAPSS

Defined success KPIs (success rate, settlement time, uptime) to guide pilot and iteration

For cross-border payments, users trust the product when fees + FX + status are clear and consistent across markets.

For businesses, confidence comes from repeatability (saved recipients) and proof (receipts + reference IDs).

A “simple send” experience still needs strong back-end logic (routing, compliance, reconciliation) to feel reliable.

Expand to additional PAPSS-connected markets and corridors (phased rollout approach)

Add business features: scheduled payouts, invoices/payment links, reconciliation exports

Explore future integrations mentioned in the framework (e.g., trade finance automation, CBDC/stablecoin research as PAPSS evolves)