Economy
African Banking Giant Moves to Adopt Yuan Payments as Ethiopia Explores Similar Shift
BirrMetrics · 1 hour ago · Read the Full Story on BirrMetrics
AI SUMMARY
Pan-African banking group Ecobank is preparing to adopt China’s cross-border payment system to facilitate yuan transactions as Ethiopia explores similar arrangements with Beijing.
- Pan-African banking group Ecobank plans to join China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System on October 10, 2026.
- Ecobank is negotiating with the Bank of China to jointly provide yuan settlement services to reduce reliance on intermediary dollar transactions.
- China's CIPS network connects more than 5,000 financial institutions across over 100 countries and territories.
- Other African lenders including South Africa’s Standard Bank and Rwanda’s Bank of Kigali have already joined the payment system.
- The National Bank of Ethiopia has initiated discussions with the People’s Bank of China regarding yuan-denominated transactions and currency swap arrangements.
- Bilateral trade between Ethiopia and China reached a record 4.72 billion US dollars in 2025.
- Ethiopia removed a restriction in May 2026 allowing all licensed commercial banks to handle banking transactions for goods exported to China.
- Ethiopia has also explored converting part of its approximately 5.38 billion US dollars in outstanding Chinese debt into yuan-denominated obligations.
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