CARICOM | Afreximbank-CARICOM Payment System Races Against Time as China Deploys Operational Alternative

As operational alternatives to dollar hegemony emerge, the window for genuine regional autonomy is rapidly closing

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, December 6, 2027 - When South Africa's Standard Bank became the first African financial institution to integrate directly with China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) in June 2025, it sent a clear message to the Global South: escape from dollar dependency is no longer theoretical—it's operational, available today, and processing real transactions.

For the Caribbean and Latin America, both regions conducting billions in annual trade with China, CIPS represents a seductive alternative. Direct yuan payments. No dollar conversion costs. No exposure to Federal Reserve interest rate whiplash. No routing through New York clearing houses that can freeze assets at Washington's political whim. The pitch is compelling, the infrastructure works, and businesses desperate for reliable payment rails won't wait indefinitely for alternatives.

But the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has been quietly building something far more significant: a genuinely regional payment system that offers the Caribbean true financial sovereignty rather than simply trading one external dependency for another. The question is whether Caribbean leaders will move fast enough to seize it.

The Illusion of Choice

China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, CIPS.

Standard Bank's announcement, made with great fanfare at a South African Reserve Bank event attended by People's Bank of China officials, positions the system as a practical solution to real problems.

For import-dependent Caribbean economies buying Chinese machinery, electronics, textiles, and construction materials, the appeal is obvious.

But operational convenience masks strategic vulnerability. Financial infrastructure is sovereignty in the digital age. Nations that control payment rails control economic flows, data, and ultimately political leverage.

China hasn't spent billions building CIPS out of altruistic concern for developing nations—it's constructing the architecture for yuan hegemony to replace dollar hegemony.

The Caribbean has seen this movie before. We know what dependency looks like, whether the currency clearing through foreign servers is dollars or yuan.

We know how quickly "partnerships" become pressure when geopolitical winds shift. We know the cost of having our financial plumbing controlled by powers whose interests rarely align with ours.

Afreximbank's Vision: Africa-Caribbean Financial Integration

This is precisely why Afreximbank's approach represents a fundamentally different paradigm. Since establishing its Caribbean regional office in Barbados, the pan-African multilateral institution has approved over $700 million in financing across the region, with a pipeline exceeding $2 billion.

But Afreximbank's most transformative contribution isn't capital—it's the institutional architecture for genuine South-South cooperation.

The Caribbean Community Payment and Settlement System (CAPSS), developed through Afreximbank's partnership with CARICOM central banks, mirrors the bank's successful Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).

Already operational across six West African Monetary Zone countries and expanding rapidly, PAPSS has proven the model works: real-time, local currency transactions without dollar intermediation, backed by central banks rather than external powers.

The successful proof of concept between Barbados and Bahamas central banks in February 2025 demonstrated CAPSS's technical viability. The pilot expansion announced at July's AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum in Grenada—incorporating Barbados, Bahamas, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank states, and additional members—shows institutional momentum.

Phase Two integration between CAPSS and PAPSS promises direct Africa-Caribbean currency exchange, creating a payment corridor serving over 1.5 billion people across two continents.

This isn't aspirational rhetoric—it's functional architecture waiting for political will to scale it. Afreximbank has already done the heavy lifting.

A Track Record of Delivery

Afreximbank's commitment to the Caribbean extends far beyond payment systems. The bank provided over $4.3 million in pandemic-related vaccine assistance through the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, ensuring Caribbean nations weren't left behind when wealthy countries hoarded doses. The $3 billion credit facility for CARICOM countries supports trade infrastructure and small business competitiveness.

The Green, Resilience and Sustainability Facility, formalized through a €708,000 grant agreement with the CARICOM Development Fund, addresses climate adaptation—an existential priority for small island states.

Most significantly, thirteen CARICOM member states have now acceded to Afreximbank's establishment agreement, including Jamaica as of July 2025. This unlocks an additional $1.5 billion in financing, raising the bank's total approved facility for the region to $3 billion.

Former Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah's recent conferment with Barbados's "Honorary Order of Freedom"—one of the nation's highest honors for international figures—reflects the depth of institutional trust Afreximbank has built.

These aren't hollow promises. Afreximbank has deployed capital, built institutions, and delivered results while never imposing conditionalities that compromise sovereignty.

The Urgency Crisis

But institutional credibility and technical architecture mean nothing if CAPSS remains perpetually in the pilot phase while CIPS processes billions in live transactions daily. Every month of delay is market share lost to operational alternatives. Every business that integrates with CIPS because it works today is one less stakeholder invested in CAPSS tomorrow. Network effects in payment systems are brutal—first movers entrench, latecomers struggle.

ECCB Governor Timothy Antoine's phrase—"charity begins at home"—captures the right principle. Phase One intra-Caribbean payments in local currencies build the foundation. Phase Two pivot to Africa creates the integration that makes both regions stronger. But principles without urgency become epitaphs for missed opportunities.

China didn't wait. CIPS launched in 2015 and now connects over 1,400 financial institutions across 100+ countries. Standard Bank's integration is one data point in methodical expansion. Beijing understands that in payment systems, the operational beats the optimal, and the available defeats the aspirational.

Afreximbank has provided the blueprint, the financing, the technical partnership, and the institutional commitment. What CAPSS needs now is Caribbean political leaders treating deployment as the existential priority it is.

A Choice, Not Yet Made

The Caribbean stands at a genuine crossroads. Path One: maintain dollar dependency despite its weaponization, volatility, and structural disadvantages. Path Two: adopt CIPS and trade Washington's oversight for Beijing's. Path Three: accelerate Afreximbank's CAPSS deployment and claim genuine financial sovereignty through Africa-Caribbean partnership.

Only Path Three preserves autonomy. Only Path Three builds on solidarity rather than external patronage. Only Path Three creates infrastructure we control, backed by an institution—Afreximbank—that has consistently demonstrated commitment to regional empowerment over three decades of operation.

The window is open, but it won't stay open forever. Every day CIPS processes Caribbean-China trade is a day the alternative architecture entrenches. Every business that integrates with operational systems is harder to migrate later.

The question isn't whether dollar hegemony is ending—that's settled. The question is whether the Caribbean will seize Afreximbank's partnership to shape what replaces it, or merely choose which external power controls our financial future.

We have the blueprint. We have a partnership with Africa. We have the institutional framework and financing commitment through Afreximbank and CARICOM.

What we need now is the political courage to make CAPSS operational before operational alternatives make the choice for us. Afreximbank has done its part. The ball is in the Caribbean leaders' court.

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