Ecobank partners with Cips for yuan settlements

The Ecobank banking group, which operates in around thirty African countries, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (Cips) in Beijing on October 10. This agreement aims to improve cross-border yuan settlements between African and Chinese businesses, as reported by the Ecofin Agency.

Cips simplifies yuan-based payments

Cips enables African companies to make payments in yuan after converting their local currency, potentially making cross-border trade with China more efficient. Financial Afrik highlights this as a key benefit, especially as Sino-African trade has grown significantly since the early 2000s.

China's zero customs duty policy boosts yuan use

A major factor in the appeal of yuan payments for African countries is China's zero customs duty policy on all products imported from the 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic ties. This policy, introduced in May, encourages more use of the yuan in trade. Additionally, other African banks are using Cips to pay China directly, avoiding the dollar.

Yuan adoption grows across Africa

Cips supports a broader shift toward using the yuan, as more African countries engage with Chinese financial systems. For instance, Zambia has been collecting mining taxes in yuan since January, Kenya converted its dollar debt to yuan in October 2025, and Ethiopia is considering similar steps for its debt.

Efforts to reduce dollar dependence

According to New African, both Russia and China have worked to create independent payment systems in response to global reliance on the US dollar and Western sanctions. As trade with China grows, the country is pushing to reduce the role of the dollar in transactions, promoting the use of its own currency internationally.

Dollar still dominates global payments

For decades, African financial transactions have passed through Western-controlled systems like Swift and Visa, which involve high costs and multiple currency conversions. Despite this, the US dollar remains dominant in global trade, accounting for 50.2% of bank payments on the Swift network in January 2025, compared to only 2 to 3% for the yuan, as noted by Afrimag.

Cips not yet a substitute for Swift

While Cips provides new settlement options in currencies other than the dollar, the Ecofin Agency says it will not be enough to fully shift Sino-African trade away from the dollar. Afrimag adds that Cips is still far from matching the significance of Swift, which remains central to the global financial system, where the US dollar is the dominant currency.