Three countries in Africa will be implementing a flagship digital public infrastructure program for the first time in a bid to create a more unified African market.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has chosen Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria as the first countries to implement the Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT) initiative.
The selection marks one of the continent’s most ambitious attempts to build interoperable digital public infrastructure across national borders. Rather than focusing on individual government systems, ADAPT seeks to create shared digital rails for identity, payments and trusted data exchange that can support the long-term goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The three pilot countries were selected via a two‑stage evaluation that assessed political commitment, regulatory alignment, technical capacity, private‑sector engagement and the maturity of national digital systems.
“Africa has a unique opportunity to leapfrog fragmented, paper-based trade systems and establish digital trust infrastructure designed for the future,” said Dominik Schiener, cofounder and chair of the IOTA Foundation.
“ADAPT is not only digitizing processes, but it is also creating a shared, interoperable foundation where trade data can be trusted, verified, and exchanged securely across borders.”
Launched in November 2025, ADAPT is intended to provide the shared digital rails that will underpin the world’s largest free-trade area by population. The initiative aims to unlock new opportunities for businesses and significantly increase intra‑African trade.
H.E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary‑General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, said the full implementation of the AfCFTA could boost intra‑African exports by more than 80 percent and generate up to US$450 billion by 2035. He believes that trusted, interoperable systems would open new pathways for micro, small and medium enterprises, and particularly those led by women and young people, to participate in regional and global value chains.
“Through initiatives like ADAPT, digital public infrastructure spanning digital identity, payments, and data systems will be the engine that lowers trade costs, expands market access, and enables a more competitive, inclusive, and resilient African single market,” Mene said.
ADAPT establishes a shared digital foundation to enable trusted data exchange across borders, connecting goods, payments and information. The initiative looks to shift national digitization efforts toward a continental ecosystem, doing this by integrating secure digital identity systems, interoperability frameworks, seamless data exchange and modernized payment infrastructure.
It directly targets long‑standing barriers to African trade including fragmented systems, manual paperwork and limited interoperability, which continue to create delays and unnecessary costs at borders.
The initiative is an African‑led digital transformation effort developed by the AfCFTA Secretariat in collaboration with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the IOTA Foundation and the World Economic Forum, and built on the interoperable digital trade infrastructure TWIN.
“Africa can stand at the threshold of a new economic area,” Tony Blair said in a video published by the IOTA Foundation. The African Continental Free Trade Area provides the vision of the world’s biggest free trade area, while its protocol on digital trade can give us the rules for it.”
The pilot countries begin implementation
In addition to improving digital interoperability for trade, ADAPT will expand access to digital payment solutions and explore emerging areas such as digital currencies, including stablecoins.
“The launch of ADAPT in these first three countries marks the beginning of its implementation under the AfCFTA,” said Frank Matsaert, global lead for trade, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
“By embedding digital trust and interoperability at the heart of trade processes, the AfCFTA and its partners are laying the foundation for a more connected, competitive, and resilient African market. The ADAPT initiative welcomes active participation by additional partners and funders,” he added.
Implementation will now begin in Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria, with each country working alongside the AfCFTA Secretariat and technical partners to operationalize the initiative. Early efforts will focus on enabling live cross‑border data exchange, digitizing trade documentation and supporting faster, more secure transactions for businesses engaged in intra‑African commerce.
The phase includes establishing national ADAPT Implementation Forums, integrating core DPI components such as digital identity and payment rails, and aligning national systems with continental interoperability standards.
The pilot countries will also help shape governance frameworks, test regulatory approaches — including those related to digital currencies — and demonstrate real‑world use cases that can be replicated across the continent. Lessons learned will guide a phased expansion of ADAPT to additional countries.
If successful, ADAPT could become one of the largest cross-border digital public infrastructure deployments in the world, testing whether interoperable digital identity, payments and data-sharing systems can underpin a continental digital economy spanning more than 50 countries.
Article Topics
ADAPT | Africa | cross-border data sharing | digital public infrastructure | interoperability | IOTA Foundation | Kenya | Morocco | Nigeria | pilot | Tony Blair Institute
