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360 million adults in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to bank accounts. This is about 17% of the global bank population concentrated on a single continent. Furthermore, Africa’s top ten banks averaged $867 million in 2024, while the remaining population remained completely locked out, only serving the elite.
summary
- Banks failed in Africa – chasing profits while leaving 360 million people unbanked. Mobile money has already proven that Africans are adopting digital finance.
- Tokenization is the next leap. Turn gold, farmland and goods into digital assets, allowing people to own and trade directly from their mobile phones.
- Wealth that holds value – tokenized gold protects savings from inflation and currency collapse, paving the real path to middle class growth.
- Trust is everything – Proof of preparation and transparent tracing will help tokenization build enduring confidence without repeating FTX mistakes.
Maximum profit, minimum reach – it is an African bank in four words. And this broken model suddenly doesn’t start to work. Africa needs to skip banks entirely. In fact, Asian countries face the same problem and have successfully embraced tokenization as a parallel financial system to reduce the number of unbanked citizens.
Why shouldn’t Africa go the same path?
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Tokenization infrastructure already exists
Africa already has the infrastructure to build parallel financial systems. The continent processed $1.1 trillion in mobile money transactions in 2024, accounting for 65% of the global mobile money transaction value. Mobile money was successful where banks failed. With the skills they already had, we met people where they were. Currently, tokenization takes the same playbook and applies it to the actual assets.
Consider the artisan miners in Tanzania. Up to 40% of Africa’s gold is not declared, and an estimated $30 billion is smuggled annually, mainly because small miners have no access to formal markets. Tokenization changes the equation. By digitally representing physical gold on a secure blockchain platform, tokenization enables traceable, cross-border transactions.
The same smartphones that enhance mobile money can retain fractional ownership of gold, copper mines, or agricultural products.
And projects across the continent have already proven that tokenization works for Africa’s unbanked populations.
For example, the “1 Million Avocado” project in Kenya has tokenized the entire orchard, allowing farmers to access capital, training and direct market connections. Ghana’s new Gold Board introduces blockchain-based tracking to formalize production and curb smuggling.
Tokenization does not require a bank branch to reach everyone. The public accesses assets directly through mobile phones. This is the same mobile phones you already use for mobile money.
The missing parts of the African wealth equation
Getting a bank account does not build wealth when the currency loses 30% a year. The path from working class to middle class becomes a treadmill that never stops. You earn more, but somehow you have less leeway. Your savings will evaporate through your own negligence. The wealthy already knows the answer: their own money.
But most people don’t understand what makes money so powerful. The metal has highly praised 1,000% since 2000, 100% in the last five years and 35% in January alone. Unlike abstract investments, you can claim physical money at your gateway – the concrete wealth you actually hold.
When regulatory, insurance, and audited platforms tokenize gold, they combine centuries-developed value with modern safeguards. The result is accessible and secure wealth protection. However, traditional barriers meant that only the wealthy could access these interests.
Gold has traditionally been a hedge against inflation, market instability and currency devaluation. Tokenization can democratize this protection. Ubuntu Tribe’s flagship gift, Gift Gold, represents just one milligram of gold. This is about 10 US cents worth. Ghanaian teachers can now save money. Owners of Kenyan small business can save capital during harvest.
Once people can protect what they earn, they will start building real wealth. Research shows that gold and silver provide effective hedges against inflation risk in African countries such as Ghana, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania.
When savings retain value, people can actually think about tomorrow. They invest in businesses, buy property and provide education funding. The African Development Bank is expected to increase the middle class from 355 million in 2010 to 1.1 billion by 2060, but only if it is able to protect what these ambitious millions have made.
Tokenization without proof is digital fraud
The only tokenization without transparency is FTX with additional steps. FTX owed at least $8 billion when creditors collapsed, and customer funds mysteriously disappeared into accounts managed by Alameda research. African investors have lost millions. The same trust issues that killed FTX now threaten all tokenized assets.
The back-up proof offers both the growing defi ecosystem and traditional financial systems a way to increase operational transparency through the definitive on-chain proof of true collateral for assets. All tokenized gold certificates, all fractional mine ownership, all agricultural commodity tokens require verifiable assistance. Real-time encrypted proof replaces promises and outdated quarterly audits.
And we implemented this on the Ubuntu Tribe. Our Track-N-Trace system offers publicly available 24/7 real-time gold logistics and supply chain transparency with proof of reserves from trusted institutions. Anyone can see that their gift tokens represent actual gold in safes in Switzerland, Germany, or Dubai. The system completely eliminates black boxes and “trust us” statements.
Over dozens of the world’s largest exchanges, we are now implementing evidence of reserves, with most beginning after the collapse of the FTX exchange in 2022.
Africa has learned this lesson in a difficult way. Thousands of African investors lost their money in the FTX crash. The exchange had over 100,000 customers in Africa when it collapsed. Proof of booking is not an option. It must be a foundation that rebuilds trust in digital assets across the continent.
The path ahead is already clear
The bank had a chance. They chose record profits beyond their 360 million potential customers. They built branches in wealthy areas, and rural communities saved cash under their mattresses. That model does not change suddenly – banks make too much money from exclusion to accept inclusion.
Tokenization offers another path to Africa. Not a better banking system, but completely in place of banks. Mobile money has proven that Africans adopt digital finance when they actually provide services. Tokenized assets are now turning the same infrastructure into tools to build real wealth. Gold that anyone can own. A product that farmers can trade. Savings that retain value against the currency collapse.
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Mamadou Kutidjim Tour
Mamadou Kutidjim Tour He built his career dismantling financial barriers across Africa. After 20 years of running more than $25 billion in transactions at KPMG, BNP Paribas and IBM, he realized that traditional capital markets systematically excluded the entire continent from wealth creation. Forbes recognized him as one of Africa’s top 10 most influential men, but Mamadou had already solved a bigger problem. It links African entrepreneurs to global investment flows that historically bypassed the region. He launched the Ubuntu Group in 2015, filling this capital gap. The venture’s breakthrough was equipped with the Ubuntu Tribe, which democratized precious metal investment through digital gold tokens. The African Bankers Awards recognized innovation as a finalist in 2019.
