African Digital Asset Framework launches

The African Digital Asset Framework, announced in July at the United Nations, has officially launched with the release of a research and development paper outlining the opportunities presented by distributed ledger technologies and digital assets to open borders for commerce within the African continent and between its diaspora.

Digital assets create a secure way for people to trade, peer-to-peer, across borders, enabling people to securely access and transfer items like currency, identities, land titles and votes over the Internet. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to create trade networks for commerce throughout the continent and among its diaspora. ADAF exists to create standards to enable these opportunities for Pan-African trade.

ADAF co-trustee Marvin H. Coleby said: “Digital assets are secure, borderless and do not require expensive infrastructure – they can be sent anywhere, anytime, inexpensively and by anyone. There is an opportunity to build digital bridges for trade and commerce among Pan-African communities in the diaspora and within the continent. Currently, only 11% of Africa’s GDP comes from Pan-African trade.

“Digital assets are secure, borderless and do not require expensive infrastructure – they can be sent anywhere, anytime, inexpensively and by anyone. There is an opportunity to build digital bridges for trade and commerce among Pan-African communities in the diaspora and within the continent. Currently, only 11 percent of Africa’s GDP comes from Pan-African trade.

Marvin H. Coleby,

ADAF Co-trustee

“However,” he adds, “there is a need for strong legal and technological standards to support these technologies. ADAF works together with ecosystem partners across the continent and its diaspora to create standards that can be adopted and customised by companies and regulators.”

ADAF is the first open-source software platform to create transnational standards for digital assets and distributed ledger technologies in line with Pan-African development objectives, and complements the African Union’s Single African Digital Market initiative, which seeks to leverage technology to stimulate digitised Pan-African economic integration.

ADAF is supported by ambassadors from organisations like the African Union, its member states, and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Ambassadors include Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, 6th President of the Republic of Mauritius; Adewale Iyanda, Chief of Corporate Governance and Shareholder Relations at the AfDB and previous Senior Legal Officer at the AU; Moctar Yedaly, the AU’s Head of Internet Society and ICT Infrastructure; Dr. Bitange Ndemo, former ICT Permanent Secretary of Kenya, Member of the Safaricom Board of Directors and Chairman of the Kenya Blockchain and AI Taskforce; and Queen Diambi Kabatusuila Tshiyoyo Muata, Her Royal Highness Queen of the Bakwa Indu at Kasai Kingdom, Democratic Republic of Congo.

ADAF is led by its three founding member organisations: Raise, Kotani and alba.one. ADAF as a platform is supported by the ADAF Foundation, which is being registered as a trust in Kenya.

Founding members and co-trustees of the ADAF Foundation include:
– Marvin Coleby, CEO and Founder at Raise, advisor at the African Blockchain Alliance.
– Josiah Mugambi, Co-founder at alba.one, a collaborative product development and distributed ledger R&D company.
– Felix Macharia, COO at EOS Nairobi, co-founder at Kotani blockchain incubator.