We are always on the lookout for major breakthroughs in Africa’s tech ecosystem. Lately, we are beginning to hear that a possible disruption to project financing in Africa may be in the works.
Information filtering out suggests that a major African brand operating within the mobility and logistics sector may be in advanced stages in their collaboration with a set of international partners to develop and launch what may be the first Africa-wide decentralised blockchain-enabled project financing platform, revolutionising not just how projects are financed in Africa, but the range of partnerships possible.
From what we are hearing so far, the project will involve the minting and launch of a new cryptocurrency that will serve as the primary medium of value exchange on the platform. The backers of the project, we’re hearing, are confident that the new currency has the potential to retain value and survive volatility owing to the sound liquidity management system to be deployed, and the real-world assets upon which it will be hinged.
To authenticate the rumours of such a project and unearth the details, our crack team of investigators (we’re not kidding) got to work.
We must confess that if such a project were truly in the works, the backers have done a really good job at maintaining secrecy, especially for a project as consequential as this. Nevertheless, our team expectedly (we’re that good) found snippets here and there.
Firstly, following the lead of “one of Africa’s foremost brands in mobility and logistics being involved”, we worked our contacts and were able to reach a reasonable, if the cautious conclusion that GIGM and GIGL, both leaders in mobility and logistics in Africa, maybe the most likely candidates for such a far-reaching disruptive project.
One of the things that helped our search was the track record of the GIG brand. The brand has been on a trajectory of disruption for a long time, innovating to create a future-forward service ecosystem for the African continent.
Our search continued to identify the exact DeFi project and the cryptocurrency at play. After several efforts, we happened upon a website that provided a good clue—gigxpad.com
According to the website, “GIGX is Africa’s first decentralized marketplace, bringing real-world business opportunities to a blockchain-based environment.” It adds that the project seeks “…to unlock economic opportunities for all by enabling peer-to-peer services, effectively cutting out the middlemen – reducing associated costs in the process.”
From our findings so far, we are reasonably confident that this is a rumoured project. We also think that the cryptocurrency being minted and launched will be called GIGX.
Whether we are right or not, only time will tell.
Unfortunately, we were not able to provide any links (we’re human after all!) to the rumoured foreign partners on the project whom we also hear have committed some funds to it. We are hearing that apart from the pre-seed funding from the partners, an initial private sale of the token is imminent as some parties have indicated interest.
We reached out to the team at GIG for confirmation and they were somewhat neither denying nor confirming. That’s almost enough clue for us!
Whatever the case, we are hopeful that this project sees the light of day as it will help thousands of businesses and institutions across Africa surmount the perennial challenge of accessing funds for projects within a sustainably convenient and profitable arrangement.