Stanbic Bank Kenya’s parent company, Standard Bank Group, is set to join China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) by the end of 2025 in a strategic move aimed at enhancing its position in Africa-China trade.
The shift is designed to strengthen the bank’s capability to handle Chinese Yuan (RMB) transactions directly, offering a faster and more efficient alternative to the traditional SWIFT system for settlements involving Chinese businesses. This transition is expected to significantly boost the bank’s competitiveness in facilitating growing cross-border trade and investment between China and African markets.
“At the moment, we are using SWIFT, but Standard Bank is in the process of joining CIPS, which is the equivalent system for Yuan-based transactions,” said Muya Guo, Stanbic Bank Kenya’s Senior Vice President and Head of the China Desk. “This move aligns with the growing need to support Chinese corporates operating in Africa.”
CIPS, launched in 2015 and backed by the People’s Bank of China, allows direct settlement of yuan-denominated transactions within China’s domestic financial infrastructure, bypassing the need for intermediary offshore banks. Its adoption by global banks is steadily growing amid a shift toward de-dollarization in international trade.
The move by Standard Bank builds on its long-standing partnership with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which acquired a 20 percent stake in the group in a landmark $5.5 billion deal in 2008.
“Since 2008, Standard Bank and ICBC have worked closely to understand and support the business needs of Chinese corporates in Africa,” Guo added. “We now see a clear opportunity to expand that role as Chinese investors increasingly target Africa’s rising middle class and the benefits of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.”
China continues to cement its role as a dominant trading partner for Kenya. According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), China accounted for 19.23 percent of Kenya’s total imports, worth KSh257.70 billion, in the first half of 2024 representing a sharp 25.56 percent increase from the same period the previous year.
Kenya’s import basket from China is heavily weighted toward industrial goods, including machinery and electronics, which are essential for the country’s infrastructure and manufacturing development. As Chinese businesses look to deepen their footprint in Africa by setting up local operations, financial institutions capable of facilitating seamless yuan transactions are becoming increasingly crucial.
The CIPS platform, which currently connects hundreds of financial institutions across the globe, offers a strategic edge by reducing reliance on the US dollar and enabling real-time, lower-cost transactions.
With this planned integration, Standard Bank positions itself at the frontier of a new era of Africa-China trade, paving the way for faster, more transparent, and cost-effective financial flows aligned with evolving geopolitical and economic trends.
