Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria Lead First ADAPT Implementations
TL;DR:
Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria are the first countries to implement ADAPT. Led by the AfCFTA Secretariat and developed with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the World Economic Forum, and the IOTA Foundation, the initiative is building a shared digital infrastructure for intra-African trade. Implementation begins now, covering digital identity, cross-border data exchange, and payment interoperability.
Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria will be the first countries to implement ADAPT, the Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade initiative launched in November last year to build a trusted, open, and inclusive digital public infrastructure for African trade.
Led by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, in partnership with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the World Economic Forum, and the IOTA Foundation, ADAPT integrates digital identity, cross-border data exchange, and interoperable payments into one shared foundation, supporting the largest global free trade zone by participating nations.
The three countries were selected through a rigorous process that assessed political commitment, regulatory readiness, digital infrastructure maturity, and private sector engagement.
From announcement to implementation
African trade faces deep structural barriers: fragmented regulatory regimes, the absence of standardised digital identity systems, payment networks that are expensive and slow, limited cross-border data sharing, and a trade finance gap estimated at $100 billion annually that leaves SMEs (estimated at up to 90% of African businesses) underserved. These challenges compound one another, driving up logistics costs and cross-border payment fees. The result is a continent whose vast trade potential is consistently constrained by the absence of shared, trusted digital infrastructure.
ADAPT is designed to address these challenges directly, and with Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria confirmed as the first pilot countries, implementation is now underway.
Implementation of ADAPT means getting to work on the concrete building blocks of digital trade. In each pilot country, this involves establishing ADAPT Country Implementation Forums, integrating digital identity systems and payment rails, and aligning national infrastructure with continental interoperability standards – built on TWIN, the open digital trade infrastructure that underpins ADAPT.
The immediate focus will be on enabling live cross-border data exchange and digitising trade documentation at source, replacing paper-based processes with verified, tamper-proof digital records. The three countries will also begin testing regulatory frameworks for digital currencies, including stablecoins, laying the groundwork for faster, cheaper cross-border settlement.
Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder and Chair of the IOTA Foundation, said: “Africa has a unique opportunity to leapfrog fragmented, paper-based trade systems and establish digital trust infrastructure designed for the future. 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. We are proud to contribute our technology and expertise to a milestone that advances not only digital trade, but the broader vision of a truly integrated African market.”
Shaping what comes next
The governance frameworks, technical approaches, and real-world use cases developed across Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria will directly inform how ADAPT scales to additional AfCFTA member states, building toward a continental standard that defines how goods, data, identity, and payments move across Africa for decades to come.
See the full press release announcement here.
