IOTA Powers Africa's Ambitious ADAPT Initiative to Revolutionize Digital Trade Across 55 Nations

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has launched the ADAPT (AfCFTA Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade) initiative, a comprehensive digital trade platform designed to overhaul the continent's trade infrastructure. Developed in partnership with the IOTA Foundation, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and World Economic Forum, ADAPT aims to address systemic challenges like paper-heavy documentation, fragmented systems, and costly cross-border transactions.

The initiative is built on a three-layer digital infrastructure powered by IOTA's distributed ledger technology. The digital identity layer integrates with national systems such as Kenya's eCitizen and Nigeria's NIMC to provide secure identities. The data exchange layer standardizes trade documents, projected to reduce border clearance times from 14 days to under 3 days. The financial layer connects mobile money, banks, and digital currencies, aiming to lower transaction fees to below 3%.

Economic impacts are substantial, with ADAPT expected to generate $23.6 billion annually from efficiency gains and address an $81 billion trade finance gap for small and medium-sized enterprises. Intra-African trade, currently at only 17%, could double by 2035, unlocking over $70 billion in new commerce. The pilot phase begins in 2025 in Kenya and Ghana, with full continental expansion planned through 2035.

Dominik Schiener, IOTA co-founder, emphasized, "This is a tremendous opportunity for Africa to leapfrog and build the most modern digital infrastructure in the world." AfCFTA Secretary General Wamkele Mene described it as "the cornerstone of our vision to create an inclusive and integrated continental market." IOTA's prior projects in Kenya and Rwanda, such as TLIP and TWIN, have demonstrated early success in enhancing trade transparency and speed.