Africa: UDPN and FORUS Digital Forge Strategic Partnership to Advance Financial Innovation Across Africa

Universal Digital Payments Network (UDPN), a global leader in payments messaging for regulated stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), has announced a strategic collaboration with FORUS Digital, a pioneer in blockchain-based cooperative digital finance. This partnership seeks to promote financial inclusion and foster the adoption of tokenization solutions throughout Africa, focusing initially on South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia.

Empowering Africa Through Decentralized Finance

This collaboration aims to provide African communities, governments, and businesses with cutting-edge tools to drive economic empowerment through blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Sonny Fisher, Founder of FORUS Digital, said:

“Our partnership with UDPN accelerates our vision of economic empowerment through decentralized finance. Together, we are equipping Africa with the tools to embrace blockchain-powered tokenization and drive sustainable development.”

Christopher Ortiz, Group Executive Board Member at GFT, added:

“UDPN’s collaboration with FORUS Digital is shaping a future where financial services are accessible, efficient, and secure for all Africans. This partnership highlights our commitment to leveraging technology as a catalyst for economic resilience in African communities.”

UDPN: A Backbone for Digital Currency Innovation

UDPN provides a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)-powered platform that ensures interoperability between regulated stablecoins, tokenized deposits, CBDCs, and business IT systems. Its solutions aim to reduce costs, streamline cross-border payments, and accelerate regulated digital currency adoption.

In 2024, UDPN introduced three transformative solutions:

1. Tokenized Deposit/Stablecoin Management System: A robust platform for banks and regulated issuers to manage the lifecycle of tokenized deposits and stablecoins with advanced interoperability.
2. Digital Asset Tokenization System: Enables financial institutions to tokenize real-world assets within a regulated environment.
3. All-in-One Digital Currency Sandbox: Allows central and commercial banks to test and innovate with digital currency technologies securely.

Africa’s Growing Digital Asset Landscape

Africa is poised for rapid growth in digital assets, with Statista projecting a market revenue of $3.12 billion by 2024 and over 53.89 million users by 2025. Several African nations, including South Africa, Nigeria, Eswatini, and Ethiopia, are leading the way in CBDC development, while FORUS Digital supports central banks in leveraging the UDPN sandbox for regulatory and use-case testing.

Transforming Financial Services

The partnership will:

• Help central banks deploy secure CBDC testing environments for developing use cases and regulatory frameworks.
• Enable commercial banks to manage tokenized deposits and stablecoin lifecycles, integrating seamlessly with CBDC environments.
• Enhance programmability for new business models and improve cross-border payment efficiency and transparency.

Global Context and Industry Momentum

Globally, over 130 countries are exploring CBDCs. Traditional financial institutions like Citigroup, Societe Generale,and HSBC have already integrated digital currency solutions into their offerings, reflecting the growing importance of digital assets.

Pioneering Financial Inclusion

This partnership marks a significant milestone in Africa’s digital financial transformation. By introducing UDPN’s solutions, African governments and financial institutions will gain access to a scalable, inclusive, and low-cost blockchain-driven payment system. The collaboration underscores the transformative power of technology in fostering economic growth and resilience across the continent.