Thakoor warns Africa will miss 2027 cross-border payment targets
Bank of Mauritius Governor Dr Priscilla Muthoora Thakoor said Sub-Saharan Africa will miss the G20's 2027 cross-border payment targets. Speaking in Port Louis on July 15, 2026, she called for interoperable systems and safeguards against stablecoin risks.
Mobile scale meets costly transfers
Thakoor cited the Financial Stability Board's (FSB) 2025 progress report in assessing the G20 roadmap adopted in October 2020.
Sub-Saharan Africa has about 835 million registered mobile money accounts, and transactions across Africa exceed $1.1 trillion, according to GSMA data.
Yet Africa remains the costliest remittance region: average fees exceed 8 percent for a $200 transfer.
Sub-Saharan Africa received $57.2 billion in remittances in 2024.
Payments routed through correspondent banks outside Africa add costs and operational risks.
Thakoor linked cheaper, faster and secure payments to investment, financial inclusion and the African Continental Free Trade Area, citing external shocks since 2020 as a reason to deepen integration.
Connect the rails already built
Mauritius has built MACSS and MauCAS and linked MauCAS instant payments with India's UPI through the National Payments Corporation of India.
Travelers can use QR payments in rupees in both countries.
Mauritius also acts as REPSS settlement bank for COMESA.
SADC-RTGS supports wholesale settlement in central bank money, while TCIB enables real-time retail transfers but remains only partly rolled out.
Afreximbank's PAPSS supports local-currency payments.
Thakoor urged common ISO20022 standards, regulatory harmonisation and stronger cross-border interoperability.
More systems are not enough
Thakoor warned that additional payment infrastructures can increase fragmentation rather than reduce inefficiency.
She linked stablecoin adoption partly to foreign exchange constraints, regulatory fragmentation and uneven infrastructure.
Unfettered use, she said, risks disintermediation, monetary sovereignty and financial stability.