An Abu Dhabi-based fintech initiative plans to expand its blockchain technology to millions of Africans through a partnership with mobile money platform M-Pesa, one of the project’s executives told Semafor.
This is the latest step in the Emirate’s efforts to establish Abu Dhabi as a global financial hub and strengthen ties between the Gulf and Africa. The ADI Foundation, backed by the digital arm of a $240 billion conglomerate chaired by the brother of the UAE president, aims to bring 1 billion people onto its blockchain, ADI Chain, by 2030 by providing access to its blockchain infrastructure in emerging markets. Mobile money service M-Pesa – which allows customers to send and receive money and pay for goods – has more than 60 million monthly users in eight African countries.
Huy Nguyen Trieu, a member of the ADI Foundation advisory board, told Semafor that a “large proportion” of the targeted users would be in Africa, and that a memorandum of understanding reached with M-Pesa this month was part of an effort to expand access to the ADI channel.
“M-Pesa has been incredible in terms of financial inclusion,” he said in an interview in Abu Dhabi this month. “Our view is that we can go even further in providing the right digital infrastructure, both for individuals and SMEs,” he explained, adding that the foundation’s infrastructure could serve as a “cornerstone for accelerating digital transformation.”
