IOTA is collaborating with the World Economic Forum and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change on the ADAPT project. ADAPT is a pan-African digital trade initiative led by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It connects identity, data, and finance through digital public infrastructure to facilitate trustworthy, efficient, and inclusive trade across Africa.

Africa stands at a critical juncture for trade transformation, which is expected to reshape its economic future. IOTA is working with several leading international organizations to promote the digital flow of goods, data, and payments across the African continent, unlocking billions of dollars in new trade value and fostering economic inclusivity.

The initiative, named ADAPT (African Continental Free Trade Area Digital Access and Trade Public Infrastructure Initiative), integrates seamless payments, secure data access, and digital identity into a unified digital public infrastructure, enabling African countries to trade with greater security, transparency, and efficiency.

Once fully implemented, ADAPT is expected to achieve the following goals:

• Connect all African countries by 2035, facilitating trade on a unified open digital infrastructure;
• Double intra-African trade by 2035, unlocking over $70 billion in annual additional trade volume;
• Generate $23.6 billion in economic benefits annually through faster, lower-cost trade;
• Reduce border clearance times from up to 14 days to under 3 days;
• Lower cross-border payment fees from 6% – 9% to below 3%.

To understand how ADAPT will achieve these impacts, it is essential to examine why Africa's trade system needs a digital foundation and how this initiative can unlock that potential.

Unlocking Africa's Trade Potential

Africa has a population of 1.5 billion and a GDP exceeding $3 trillion, making it the largest free trade area in the world. However, despite its vast size, intra-African trade accounts for only 17% of total trade, far below the over 60% levels seen in regions like Asia and Europe.

Africa's trade potential is hampered by structural inefficiencies. The lack of reliable digital identities or secure data exchange mechanisms leads to information silos. Paper documentation slows logistics, extending border clearance times by hours. Cross-border payments can take weeks, with fees reaching 9%, resulting in an annual loss of about $25 billion from the African economy. Additionally, a $81 billion trade finance gap limits capital access for small and medium-sized enterprises.

These barriers lead to supply chain inefficiencies, delays, and a lack of trust, while digital public infrastructure promises to eliminate these issues. ADAPT provides the platform to achieve this goal, and IOTA is honored to be its founding partner.

Under the leadership of the AfCFTA Secretariat, IOTA, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and the World Economic Forum are jointly advancing ADAPT, aiming to make African trade a global benchmark for digital innovation.

Sir Tony Blair, founder and executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, stated:

"We are honored to work with the AfCFTA Secretariat, the IOTA Foundation, and numerous public and private sector partners to design and implement this new ADAPT platform. We will provide practical support through teams across 17 African countries and continuously bring in top global technology and financial resources to ensure that Africa's single digital market is rooted in Africa and reaches the world."

The Digital Core of ADAPT

ADAPT primarily supports the AfCFTA in achieving its goals through three interconnected infrastructure layers: identity, data, and finance. It will create:

• Trusted digital identities: Businesses and governments will obtain secure, autonomous digital identities through decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials, integrated with national identity systems like Kenya's eCitizen and Nigeria's NIMC.
• Cross-border data exchange: ADAPT will establish a unified trusted source for trade documents and logistics information, leveraging smart contracts, AI-driven compliance checks, and IoT-based cargo tracking to reduce border clearance times by more than half.
• Interoperable financial layer: By connecting mobile money, banks, USDT, and other stablecoins and digital currencies to a unified network, ADAPT will reduce clearance times and transaction costs.

These layers collectively unlock billions of dollars in trade financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, enhance security and transparency, and ensure the efficient flow of trusted information and goods.

As Chido Munyati, head of the World Economic Forum's Africa region, stated:

"ADAPT is a significant milestone in our efforts to promote free trade and economic development in Africa. Trade inefficiencies remain one of the key barriers to business growth, and the digitization of trade processes will fundamentally change the way African economies connect and collaborate."

Engine: Open Source Digital Public Infrastructure

The technical vision of ADAPT is to leverage a range of emerging technologies, including IOTA's public blockchain network, to achieve interoperability among existing national systems, industry platforms, and digital services.

As a founding partner, IOTA will contribute technical expertise and support the building and integration of ADAPT on the IOTA network. This technology enables seamless cross-border flow by transforming each batch of goods, each document, and each transaction into verifiable digital data, thereby revolutionizing trade.

With experience developing TLIP and TWIN solutions in Kenya, IOTA is uniquely positioned to be a strategic partner in the ADAPT initiative.

By building a blockchain-based unified digital public infrastructure, Africa will establish a single trusted source for seamless cross-border commerce:

• Every aspect of the supply chain, from import/export certificates and invoices to all other trade documents, will be fully digitized, certified, and tamper-proof;
• Goods in transit can be cleared at borders more efficiently, significantly improving efficiency and reducing delays and costs;
• Tokenization of physical goods, critical minerals, and other assets will provide African businesses with better quality, lower-cost trade financing solutions;
• Payment methods using stablecoins like USDT and other digital currencies will enable faster, lower-cost cross-border trade and financing settlements.

This technology allows every participant to access the same trusted data, enhancing the coherence, accountability, and confidence of the entire trade process.

This technology has been successfully validated in public institutions and private enterprises in Kenya, Rwanda, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Implementation Progress

The promotion of ADAPT will occur in three phases:

• 2025–2026: Pilot projects in three countries, including Kenya and Ghana;
• From 2026: Expansion to more member countries, establishing legal, technical, and governance frameworks;
• 2027–2035: Full rollout to all African countries.

Each phase invites investors, innovators, and development partners to strengthen collaboration and jointly solidify the foundation of Africa's digital trade economy. ADAPT is actively engaging and welcoming other partners (such as Visa) to participate.

For more information, please contact ADAPT-inquiries@institute.global.

IOTA's Commitment to Africa's Digital Future

While ADAPT is a flagship collaboration project, it is only part of IOTA's broader commitment to Africa's digital transformation. Over the next four years, we will:

• Recruit over 40 experts in Africa to strengthen IOTA and partner organizations;
• Build and expand decentralized infrastructure to develop local digital trade capabilities;
• Foster a new generation of African innovators through special events, hackathons, and university collaborations;
• Launch trade financing solutions specifically designed for the African market;
• Expand digital payment and stablecoin applications to support broader, faster, and lower-cost cross-border settlements.

Through these initiatives, IOTA aims to serve as the underlying infrastructure to help Africa move towards digitalization and sustainable economic growth.

Dominik Schiener, co-founder and chairman of the IOTA Foundation, stated:

In the pilot projects in Kenya and Rwanda, the successful application of distributed ledger technology clearly indicates that Africa is ready to embrace these changes. The African continent sets a benchmark for the world by providing millions of businesses with new financing opportunities, unlocking tremendous economic potential, and creating a fairer competitive environment for trade.

By providing a decentralized backbone for trade data, IOTA's technology supports the construction of a unified market based on trust, security, and openness.

Want to know more? Join us for an AMA event on November 19 (Tuesday) at 23:00 Beijing time, where Dominik Schiener and a number of guests will share more details. Interested users can ask questions in advance or on-site through the X platform.

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