South African startup Wala has partnered CleanPath Emerging Markets (CP-EM) Uganda, which is developing a gigawatt-scale solar programme to create a blockchain-enabled clean energy economy, to use its digital currency Dala as the principle transactional currency.
Since the launch of Dala, currently accessible through the Wala mobile application, in May, over 100,000 Dala wallets have been opened and over 2.5 million transactions processed.
The US$1.5 billion CP-EM programme endeavors to create a new clean energy economy in Uganda, with the partnership employing Dala as its principle transactional currency, allowing Ugandan consumers to purchase solar power in Dala, workers to be paid in Dala and the programme to run on Dala.
CP-EM’s solar programme will create utility-scale grid connected renewable power systems to generate critical clean energy for commercial, industrial and residential consumers across Uganda.
“The numbers we’ve seen since the launch of Dala have been staggering, and a large portion of our current users are Ugandan, so this partnership is a natural next step to allow users the opportunity to further benefit from using Dala. The high level of user traffic also shows us that Ugandans are ready to use crypto assets in their day-to-day transactions,” said Tricia Martinez, Dala director and Wala chief executive officer (CEO).
“We’re truly excited about this programme and our partnership with Dala,” said Prince Kudra Kalema of the Buganda Kingdom, managing partner and co-founder at CP-EM. “By providing Ugandans with an opportunity to access clean energy through $DALA, we’re fostering a more inclusive decentralised financial system not possible with legacy technologies.”
