The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, in collaboration with the IOTA Foundation, Tony Blair Institute, and World Economic Forum, has launched the ADAPT initiative to establish open-source digital infrastructure for Africa's 55 member states. This project aims to modernize trade by leveraging IOTA's distributed ledger technology (DLT) to digitize documents and utilize stablecoins, specifically USDT, for cross-border payments.
Dominik Schiener, IOTA founder, highlighted that the initiative addresses the $25 billion in annual transaction fees and multi-billion dollar losses from document fraud in Africa. Pilot tests in Kenya and Rwanda demonstrated significant success, reducing border clearance times from six hours to 30 minutes and cutting manual paperwork by 60%.
Full implementation is projected for 2026, with Kenya alone expected to process 100,000 daily transactions on IOTA. The rollout will begin in Kenya, Ghana, and a third unconfirmed country, with plans to integrate all 55 nations by 2035. AfCFTA estimates this digitalization could double intra-African trade, unlocking $70 billion in value and fostering real-world crypto adoption in global logistics.
