Africa Advances Trade Digitization With Blockchain and Stablecoin Solutions

The Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT) project was by a group that includes the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, the Iota Foundation, the Tony Blair Institute, and the World Economic Forum.

ADAPT is an open-source digital public network that aims to revolutionize trade by making it simple to send and receive payments across borders using stablecoins. 

Additionally, ADAPT stores digital trade papers and digital identities that can be used by anyone. The platform’s is to make trade transactions easier and securer in all 55 African countries by 2035. It promises to be a huge improvement over the existing sluggish, expensive, and paper-heavy ways of doing business.

Fixing difficultys With Trade

Paper-based documentation and old payment systems have been major difficultys for trade. They make transactions and customs processing take a lot longer. Border clearance can take up to 14 days and costs a lot of money, between 6% and 9%. 

ADAPT wants to change this by making it take less than three days to clear borders and reducing cross-border expenses to less than 3%. The platform also intends to make it easier for exporters to get access to global trade financing liquidity, which has been a large difficulty.

Goals and Timeline for Implementation

The ADAPT platform will first be available in Kenya in the first quarter of the following year. later than that, it will be available in and another nation that has not yet been announced. The full implementation across Africa is expected to begin in 2027 and finish by 2035.

This large project is estimated to bring in an extra $70 billion in trade income each year, showing how much money it could make.

Africa’s strong adoption of BTC and digital banking platforms makes it a promising location for trade answers that revolutionize the industry. By 2026, Africa is expected to have more than 75 million crypto users and generate $5.1 billion from transactions.

Stablecoins are particularly significant in this region, accounting for 43% of all transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia are among the countries leading the way.

Effects on African Economies

Chido Munyati, Head of Africa at the , emphasizes the importance of digitizing trade processes in removing obstacles to corporate growth and fostering economic cooperation on the continent.

ADAPT’s adoption might make things a lot more efficient, lower prices, and assist African countries become more connected to global trade networks. This could make Africa a key player in international trade.

The ADAPT project utilizes and stablecoin technology to address longstanding issues in African trade infrastructure. ADAPT is a groundbreaking project that aims to transform the way trade is conducted across Africa, drive economic growth, and enhance connectivity between countries over the next decade.

It achieves this by standardizing and digitizing trade documents, facilitating quick and inexpensive cross-border payments, and providing individuals with digital identities that are interoperable.