Africa arrives at the BRICS summit in New Delhi holding concrete institutional assets and a market of 1.4 billion people, a position that Phapano Phasha, chairperson of the Centre for Alternative Political and Economic Thought, argues gives the continent genuine power to shape the group’s emerging financial architecture.
Phasha’s assessment lands as India, holding the BRICS chairmanship since January 1, 2026, has made financial stability, cross-border payments, fintech cooperation and private capital mobilization its central priorities. Finance ministers and central bank governors convened in Jaipur in mid-August to advance those priorities. Trade ministers followed with a separate session focused on trade finance, digital services and sustainable supply chains.
The accountability question at the September 12-13 summit is straightforward: will African institutions translate their formal membership and institutional leverage into binding commitments, or will they leave without shaping the architecture being built around them?
Phasha argues they should not. His central proposal is that African institutions formally propose linking the Pan-African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS) with the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative (BCBPI) at the summit. Integration of those two mechanisms would reduce transaction costs in cross-border settlements, decrease reliance on foreign currencies in intra-African commerce and trade with BRICS nations, and accelerate financial integration across the continent. PAPSS already operates as a functional platform for cross-border transactions conducted in national currencies, meaning the institutional groundwork exists.
The bargaining position rests on several foundations. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) encompasses a market valued at US$3.4 trillion. Three African countries, South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia, hold full BRICS membership, while several others are pursuing partner state status. That combination of regulatory infrastructure, market scale and diplomatic standing creates conditions for negotiations conducted on equal terms, not as supplicants.
Meanwhile, recent financial flows signal what is possible. Foreign investment in India’s banking sector, non-bank financing, insurance and financial technology reached US$13.1 billion in the weeks preceding the summit. Phasha characterized that figure as both a signal to the Global South and a replicable model for African policymakers and regulators to study.
His proposals for concrete summit outcomes are specific. A joint working group on BRICS and African fintech interoperability should be established, with PAPSS formally integrated into the group’s payment mechanisms. A framework for attracting private capital from BRICS-based banks and investors to African financial institutions should be developed, with India-UAE financial arrangements serving as a benchmark for co-financing structures.
On the institutional side, Phasha recommended that the New Development Bank, which approved a US$1 billion loan for municipal infrastructure in South Africa in early 2026, establish a dedicated infrastructure fund for African projects. That fund should draw on India’s experience in co-financing arrangements with private capital from participating countries, giving the NDB a clearer mandate and accountability structure for continental investment.
African regulators also have homework. Phasha suggested they examine India’s approach to foreign investment limits, licensing requirements and financial technology regulation. Those frameworks, adapted to local conditions, could create regulatory coherence that facilitates cross-border financial activity while protecting domestic financial systems from the risks that come with rapid capital liberalization.
The broader argument is about institutional agency. Africa’s participation in BRICS is not simply a matter of membership status. The continent’s scale, the operational capacity of PAPSS and AfCFTA, and the presence of established member states create conditions for shaping financial mechanisms that reduce costs, accelerate settlement times and strengthen intra-continental trade. Whether the institutions at the table in New Delhi choose to press that case is the open question the September summit will answer.