Africa is home to a rapidly growing, youthful population and an expanding digital economy. Yet, despite this potential, hundreds of millions of Africans remain excluded from formal financial systems. At the heart of this exclusion lies a stark reality: being bankless is not a matter of choice, but often a result of poverty, infrastructure gaps, and limited access to reliable financial tools. For these underserved populations, Real-World Assets (RWAs) offer a powerful solution — especially when deployed through platforms like Pesabase.
The Bankless Majority: Not Just Unbanked — Excluded
More than 350 million adults in Africa do not have access to a bank account, and even more lack access to credit. This exclusion is especially severe in rural areas, where traditional banks either don’t operate or require documentation and fees that poor individuals simply can’t provide.
Importantly, the issue is not about lack of interest. People want access to savings, loans, and financial tools. The problem is that traditional systems are simply not built for low-income earners. Banks avoid lending to the poor due to the high risk and lack of collateral. As a result, many resort to informal lending networks, which often involve predatory interest rates or exploitative conditions.
Real-World Assets (RWAs): A Bridge Between Assets and Liquidity
RWAs refer to the tokenization of tangible or real-world items like land, invoices, commodities, and income streams, enabling them to be traded or used as collateral on blockchain systems. In simpler terms, RWAs turn everyday, offline value into digital formats that can be used in decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems.
For the average African struggling to access a loan, RWA-backed systems can help unlock financing using alternative forms of value — such as mobile airtime credits, remittances, or even community trust scores. But this promise can only be realized if such systems are designed with the poor in mind.
This is where Pesabase and projects in RWAfi appear.
Pesabase: Bringing RWAs to the People Who Need Them Most
Pesabase is a cross-border financial platform designed to help the population in South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya send and receive money quickly and affordably. But what sets Pesabase apart is its commitment to integrating real-world assets into financial access for those who are traditionally excluded.
For instance, many Africans receive regular remittances from relatives abroad — a vital but underutilized source of financial security. Pesabase is tokenizing these remittance flows as real-world assets, allowing individuals to use as remittances instantly. This simple innovation can mean the difference between a child going to school or dropping out, or a mother receiving medicine for her baby today instead of next month.
Rwafi and the RWA Movement: A Model for Inclusive Finance
Rwafi, short for Real World Assets for Finance and Inclusion, is the emerging model for using tokenized real assets to build new financial rails in Africa. Rather than focusing on sophisticated investors, Rwafi in Africa initiatives — like those implemented via Pesabase — prioritize practical use cases for the working poor:
- Microloans for daily needs, backed by mobile usage data or community reputation.
- Emergency funding, enabled through tokenized remittance commitments.
- Asset-building tools, such as purchasing small-scale solar kits or farm inputs via tokenized savings.
By making real-world value digitally visible and usable, platforms like Pesabase enable poor households to become financially legible — a key requirement to unlocking broader economic participation.
Empowering People, Not Just Portfolios
While many RWA projects globally focus on investment returns and yield farming, the African reality demands a shift in focus: from wealth preservation to poverty alleviation.
Poor families don’t need tokenized real estate portfolios. They need a way to access cash for food, school fees, and health emergencies. Pesabase’s approach to RWAs — rooted in local realities like remittances and informal savings — shows how Web3 technologies can be relevant and life-changing for the bankless majority.
Conclusion: From Surviving to Thriving
Financial inclusion in Africa is not just about access to banking. It’s about creating systems that understand the assets and risks of poor communities, and translate informal value into formal opportunity.
The rise of RWAs, when deployed ethically and with the right tools, can offer a lifeline to millions. Pesabase stands as a compelling example of how digital innovation, paired with on-the-ground understanding, can finally make finance work for those who need it the most — not those who already have plenty.