Modern Trade practices, especially Export Growth, in time of Digital currency & Cashless Society

#1

#MyCFTA 2-day meetup closing, one of my main takeaways are, though slightly controversial statements - - which I personnally do not mind much as an advocate for radical, disruptive innovation :wink:

  • (Though people can be intrisincally altruist) Organizations, primarly, work in their self-interest.

  • Crossborder trade is already happening, with or without AfCTA, with or without government support. Those who want to trade across borders do.

  • Goods, products or services traded are, typically, done through e-commerce and marketplace.

  • The content creation part is the easy; the gold mine is the mean of distribution. Distribution is key.

  • A unified digital payment system and, why not, currency, would be the way to go to facilitate inter-country exchanges.

If we don’t do it ourselves, Libra - and other players - will do it for us.

" Disrupt yourselve before being disrupted."

We are heading towards a cashless society, for various reasons that I won’t detail here (though you can check links below for some literature on the matter).

So what do we do about it? Which model to follow: East (see WeChat or AliPay) / West (see Swish)?

How all this falls into the wider framework of the AfCFTA?

I am no expert on the matter, only passionately interested about the new economics & politics.

Question is open, constructive comments are welcome!

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#2

This is a really powerful concept. The common monetray area in Europe has been very powerful but is not a perfect system.

We have an opportunity for a good middle-ground.

If the central banks of the continent can agree on the use of a single African digital currency that is recognized as legal tender across the continent that would be very powerful.

Instead of trying to replace local currencies we simply provide an EXTRA currency that is only digital and is usable across the continent.

+1 - the technology is getting more mature. It will take a years for this to materialize so the timing seems right to kick it off now.