A Miami based blockchain infrastructure company is positioning itself to become the settlement backbone for African governments looking to control their own financial rails instead of relying on foreign banking systems.
Global Settlement Network, known as GSX, entered the African market in 2023 with a bet that governments building new payment infrastructure would adopt blockchain based settlement faster than more established economies. Uganda has become the company’s flagship project on the continent.
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Ryan Kirkley, co founder and chief executive officer of GSX, said the inefficiencies plaguing cross border payments in Africa are creating room for a new generation of financial infrastructure. Sub Saharan Africa received 56 billion dollars in remittances in 2024 according to World Bank estimates, yet moving money across the continent still often means routing through correspondent banks, facing delays, and paying fees that can reach double digits.
In October 2025, GSX partnered with Diacente Group, a Uganda based green industrial zones developer, on a proposed 5.5 billion dollar project to build digital infrastructure connecting the country’s farms, mines, power projects, and factories, including a pilot for a digital shilling. In April 2026, the company acquired a majority stake in local capital markets firm AKIBA International to strengthen its infrastructure for real world asset tokenisation, cross border settlement, and digital currencies.
GSX’s core focus is central bank digital currencies and government backed stablecoins, built around compliance infrastructure that includes identity verification, sanctions screening, know your customer checks, anti money laundering controls, and Travel Rule compliance. Kirkley said the company does not require institutions to adopt its blockchain specifically, since it can integrate with almost any existing system.
The company believes digital financial infrastructure in Uganda could eventually bring formal financial access to roughly 8.7 million Ugandans, about 19 percent of the country’s unbanked population. If Uganda succeeds in attracting the projected 7 billion dollars in additional investment tied to the broader partnership with Diacente Group and Uganda’s special economic zones strategy, the impact could be significant, with estimates pointing to over a million jobs and as much as 10 billion dollars in annual export potential.
Kirkley said much of the opportunity lies in underdeveloped regions like Karamoja, where simple improvements such as higher value crops, local processing facilities, and refining capacity for raw materials like gold could create substantial economic value that currently leaves the country unprocessed.
Investors appear convinced. In May 2026, GSX closed an 11 million dollar pre seed funding round, which the company said will support the expansion of its blockchain based settlement network and activate 125 million dollars in settlement liquidity.
Kirkley acknowledged that any government could still decide against adopting blockchain infrastructure, in which case the company said it would exit that jurisdiction. But GSX has diversified across multiple countries and use cases, including infrastructure settlement, energy tokenisation, gold backed systems, and cross border finance, making it less dependent on any single market.
The broader ambition, according to Kirkley, is to help African countries build digital versions of their currencies so they can settle transactions directly with one another instead of routing payments through Europe or the United States.
