Seamfix has announced a new partnership with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the Afreximbank-backed network driving continental payments, to strengthen the compliance and governance framework supporting Africa’s real-time cross-border transactions.
At the center of the partnership is PGATE, a compliance and transaction-governance layer developed by Seamfix. The platform brings identity data, payment patterns, and regulatory checks into a single workflow, giving central banks, commercial banks, and other financial institutions a clearer end-to-end view of cross-border transactions, allowing them to enforce limits and detect suspicious activity without slowing down payment flows.
PAPSS will lead the rollout of the platform across its network, which already connects central banks and financial institutions processing cross-border payments in local currencies. Seamfix, meanwhile, will build, operate, and maintain PGATE under a vendor-financed model.
The initiative aligns with PAPSS’s broader goal of expanding participation and deepening the services built on its settlement infrastructure. It also addresses growing demand from financial institutions seeking clearer visibility into identity-linked payment activity as transaction volumes continue to rise across the continent.
“Payments move fast across Africa, but trust must move with them,” said Chimezie Emewulu, Group CEO of Seamfix. “This partnership helps banks and regulators see what they need to see, at the moment they need to see it without slowing down the transaction.”PGATE is powered by Seamfix’s Fixiam identity engine, enabling institutions to link customer identities across different platforms and spot fragmented transactions. The system provides pre-transaction screening, quota governance, consent management, and detailed audit trails that regulators can review after settlements are completed.
The partnership also aligns with wider efforts to streamline payments under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), easing cross-border transactions for businesses and individuals by reducing the friction of currency conversions, compliance checks, and delays.PAPSS is a pan-African payment and settlement system designed to enable real-time cross-border transactions in local currencies. It is supported by Afreximbank and the African Union and serves as a core piece of the continent’s financial integration efforts.
Seamfix, on the other hand, is a technology company focused on helping businesses and consumers worldwide create, verify, and access trusted digital identities and services. Its digital identity and compliance infrastructure is used by banks, telecom operators, and governments for identity verification, regulatory compliance, and secure digital onboarding at scale. The company was co-founded by Chimezie Emewulu, now Group CEO, who grew up in Nsukka and earned an engineering degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Emewulu and his co-founder, Chibuzor Onwurah, started Seamfix from a shared conviction that technology can solve real problems and expand access to opportunity. Their motivation came from personal experiences of exclusion and inequality, and they believed digital tools could remove barriers tied to identity and services. The company’s foundation rests on three core principles: identity is a right, not a privilege; everyone deserves equal access to opportunity; and problems can be “seamlessly fixed with technology.”