IOTA Launches ADAPT in Three African Nations to Fix a $100B Trade Finance Gap

• Advertisement -

• IOTA-backed ADAPT has started implementation in Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria to support digital trade under AfCFTA.

• ADAPT targets Africa’s $100B trade finance gap through digital identity, payment links, and cross-border data exchange.

IOTA has started the first ADAPT rollout in Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria as Africa moves to build shared digital infrastructure for cross-border trade. The programme targets long-running barriers that slow commerce across the continent, including paper-based documentation, fragmented data systems, costly payments, and a trade finance gap estimated at $100 billion a year.

ADAPT, short for Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade, sits under the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the World Economic Forum, and the IOTA Foundation support the initiative, which uses TWIN as its open digital trade infrastructure layer.

The first phase now shifts ADAPT from policy design to country-level implementation. Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria will set up national implementation forums, connect digital identity systems, align payment rails, and prepare for live cross-border data exchange. The three markets give the project coverage across East, North, and West Africa.

AfCFTA selected the pilot countries through a review process that measured legal readiness, digital infrastructure, political commitment, private-sector participation, and co-financing capacity. That selection allows the Secretariat to test ADAPT across different trade corridors, regulatory systems, and payment environments before wider expansion.

Kenya, Nigeria, and Morocco have been selected as the first countries to implement ADAPT – the Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade initiative. pic.twitter.com/WOc60fFOiW

— IOTA (@iota) May 19, 2026

African businesses still face high costs when moving goods and services across borders. Many traders still depend on paper records, uneven rules, and slow settlement systems when moving goods to other countries.

IOTA-Backed ADAPT Targets Digital Trade Barriers

IOTA’s ADAPT seeks to ease these barriers by linking trade data, digital identity, documentation, and payments through one trusted framework. Instead of each country building separate systems, the initiative seeks to connect national platforms through shared standards that can support faster verification and easier market access.

The first operational work will focus on digitising trade documents at source. That process will replace paper records with verified digital files that traders, customs authorities, financial institutions, and regulators can check across borders. The system also aims to reduce fraud risks by making trade data easier to verify and harder to alter.

Payment interoperability forms another part of the rollout. Cross-border payments in Africa often remain slow and expensive, especially for smaller firms. ADAPT will work on connecting payment rails across participating countries while keeping national systems aligned with continental standards. The programme will also test regulatory frameworks for digital currencies, including stablecoins.

IOTA’s role centers on digital trust infrastructure through TWIN. The open trade stack supports secure data exchange and verifiable records for trade workflows. Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder and Chair of the IOTA Foundation, noted:

“ADAPT is not only digitising processes, but it is also creating a shared, interoperable foundation where trade data can be trusted, verified, and exchanged securely across borders.”

AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene said full AfCFTA implementation could raise intra-African exports by more than 80% and generate up to $450 billion by 2035. Digital public infrastructure across identity, payments, and data systems can lower trade costs and widen market access.

The Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria rollout will shape how ADAPT expands into more AfCFTA member states.