ADI Foundation to utilize blockchain for M-Pesa payments in Africa

Abu Dhabi based Blockchain Foundation, ADI Foundation, which over the past weeks has been signing partnerships across the UAE and GCC region, has now opened the corridors of its operations into Africa with an MOU signed with mobile money platform M-Pesa, which offers money payment services to more than 60 million users across 8 African countries.

The announcement, which was made in an exclusive article on Semafor, noted that ADI Foundation which aims to bring 1 billion people onto its blockchain, ADI Chain, by 2030 by providing access to its blockchain infrastructure in emerging markets wants to utilize Blockchain technology not to disrupt but reinforce. ADI Foundation aims to provide secure, policy-aligned digital rails that can support faster settlement, cross-border flows, and future financial services at national scale.

Huy Nguyen Trieu, council member on the ADI Foundation’s board of advisers, told Semafor a “large proportion” of the users targeted would be in Africa, and a memorandum of understanding agreed with M-Pesa this month was part of a drive to scale up access to the ADI Chain.

“M-Pesa has been amazing in terms of financial inclusion,” he said during an interview in Abu Dhabi this month. “Our view is that we can push it further again by providing the right digital infrastructure, both for individuals and SMEs,” he explained, adding that the foundation’s infrastructure could act as “the building blocks to accelerate digital transformation.”

M-Pesa was launched in Kenya by local telecoms company Safaricom in 2007. It is now also used in DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

“We are excited to partner with ADI Foundation to tap into their expertise around new technologies and how these can transform financial services,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, CEO of M-Pesa Africa, a joint venture between Safaricom and Vodacom, in a statement.

During the Abu Dhabi Finance Week, ADI Foundation signed a number of MOUs, such as with Mastercard which is expanding its stablecoin settlement for domestic and cross-border transactions to the UAE. BlackRock also signed with IHC Group entities – Finstreet Limited and ADI Foundation to explore initiatives on the development of tokenized markets and next-generation financial architecture, aligned with Abu Dhabi’s digital economy ambitions.