Why East African banks are joining yuan payment system

Bank of Kigali has become the latest East African bank to join China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), enabling faster and more direct cross-border payments in yuan. This move bypasses traditional US dollar-centric banking networks, lowering transaction costs and reducing processing times from several days to near-instant settlement. Several countries are considering switching from dollar-denominated loans to yuan, and banks like Standard Bank have processed hundreds of millions of yuan in transactions over a few months.