At the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE), held in Shanghai from November 5-10, 2025, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) helped to deploy a digital payment system that enabled Ghanaian exhibitors to accept major Chinese digital payment methods, including WeChat Pay and Alipay, on a single device during the Expo.
This move was contrary to the previous year, when Ghanaian exhibitors at the CIIE faced challenges in processing payments efficiently due to China’s fully cashless environment.
At the 2024 Expo, many African exhibitors, including those from Ghana, struggled to receive payments from buyers who relied exclusively on cashless platforms.
In some cases in 2024, some exhibitors had to rely on other participants who were familiar with the system to receive payments on their behalf, creating delays and raising concerns about transparency and accountability.
To address the challenge, GEPA held consultations with exhibitors who participated in CIIE 2024 to better understand the gap and reached out to a research team involved in China’s mobile payment technology.
The collaboration resulted in a payment device that was capable of integrating multiple Chinese online payment systems into one platform, and it was deployed at the Ghana Pavilion during CIIE 2025.
Led on the ground by GEPA’s Human Resource and Administration Head, Humphrey Commey, who served as team lead for the 2025 CIIE delegation, the exhibitors witnessed a much easier payment system.