A digital currency for the millions of Africans who use mobile money but have never used crypto. It begins with a free claim, verified by national ID.
More than half the world’s mobile-money accounts are in Africa, moving close to a trillion dollars a year. Yet modern, borderless digital finance still asks people to begin with wallets, seed phrases and gas fees — barriers most will never cross. The demand for digital money is already here. The on-ramp is not.
African Shilling starts with the simplest thing that works: a free claim of AFS, verified by national ID, inside an app that behaves like the mobile money people already use. No jargon, no fees, no crypto knowledge required. The blockchain underneath stays invisible.
This is deliberately the first step, not the last. It exists so that someone who has never used crypto can take part on day one.
Phase 1 — Build and hardening (current). The application is complete and undergoing testing and security hardening on a test network. It is not yet open to the public.
Phase 2 — Mainnet launch. Public launch on Celo, where users can join for the first time: a free AFS claim, transfers, savings and referrals. Custodial and largely off-chain by design, so newcomers meet no crypto complexity, and built for low-end devices and constrained networks.
Phase 3 — Full participation. On-chain settlement, optional self-custody for those who want to hold funds directly, and stablecoins for everyday payments in stable value.
A deliberate progression: from a simple custodial entry point to money users fully own and control.
Celo is built for this audience. Fees can be paid in stablecoins rather than a separate gas token, it is designed mobile-first, and its ecosystem is oriented around real stablecoin payments and financial inclusion. That fit is why African Shilling is built on Celo.
Reserves will be reconciled against balances automatically, with an on-chain solvency check. Security has been hardened ahead of mainnet. As the project moves increasingly on-chain, contract addresses will be published for anyone to verify.
The system is built to serve an entire continent. By settling everyday activity off-chain and using the blockchain only where it is needed, it can scale toward every citizen in Africa — more than 1.5 billion people — without the per-transaction costs that would otherwise make that impossible. The design has been load-tested for high concurrency ahead of launch.
African Shilling is an experiment. AFS is an experimental token with no guaranteed value. Stablecoins, on-chain settlement and self-custody are planned future phases, not yet live. Nothing here is a financial promise.