CAPE TOWN, South Africa (XOL Africa) — AfriVest, the Africa program of the DAMREV Group, has partnered with the Co-op Debenture Exchange to tokenize the eduBox Debenture, an investment instrument backed by revenue from an education commerce platform targeting Africa’s annual back-to-school market.
The partnership, formalized through a mandate signed July 29, is designed to connect spending by parents, schools and education suppliers with investors through AfriVest’s digital asset infrastructure and CDEx’s cooperative capital-market platform.
The companies said the initiative is intended to help keep more education-related spending within African communities by connecting local merchants and suppliers with a broader financing ecosystem.
“Africa does not lack capital; it lacks the rails that keep capital working where it is created,” said Duane Herholdt, chairman of the board of AfriVest. “eduBox has built a live engine that captures real education spending, and CDEx anchors it in compliance.”
“Our mandate is to make that engine investable: a revenue-backed instrument, transparently proven, that serious investors can hold with confidence,” Herholdt said.
eduBox, operated by the Co-op Sure cooperative under CDEx, provides a digital platform for parents, schools, merchants, suppliers and couriers. Its services include student identity accounts, school alerts, procurement, payments, savings tools and logistics.
The platform also includes an eduSure insurance benefit and seeks to channel procurement spending toward local producers, including businesses operated by African women through the allWomen.africa community.
Under the agreement, AfriVest will provide the blockchain infrastructure for the proposed tokenized debenture. The company said this will include issuance through compliant blockchain rails, an on-chain register reconciled with the CDEx ledger, continuous verification of the revenue pools supporting coupon payments and restrictions limiting transfers to screened and whitelisted investors.
Coupon payments are also expected to be settled programmatically.
AfriVest said it plans to distribute the instrument through its investor network, including impact investors, development finance institutions and gender-focused capital providers.
Potential listings on traditional and digital exchanges are expected to follow as the necessary venue approvals are secured, initially in South Africa and later internationally, the company said.
Dr. Mandas Marikanda, chairman of the CDEx board, said the initiative could help connect education spending with local economic activity.
“This debenture keeps the money families already spend on education working inside their own communities, in businesses owned and run by African women,” Marikanda said.
“Tokenization gives our members something they have never had: investors who can see, in real time, exactly what stands behind their commitment,” he said.
CDEx chief commercial officer Dr. Eng. Anthony Parehwa said the partnership combines the exchange’s cooperative financing infrastructure with AfriVest’s digital asset capabilities.
“CDEx was built so that cooperatives could raise capital with the compliance a regulator expects to see,” Parehwa said. “Partnering with AfriVest completes the picture: our ledger anchors the issuance, and AfriVest’s tokenization layer and investor network carry it to the market.”
The companies said the project will also include an education and financial-literacy component.
Lyceum, an academy platform operated by DAMREV Group, will power an eduBox-branded education program offering financial literacy for parents and cooperative members, certification for merchants and suppliers and structured education for prospective investors.
Completed learning tracks are expected to be recorded as verifiable credentials linked to participants’ verified identities. The companies said learn-to-earn rewards may also be introduced, subject to regulatory approval in individual jurisdictions.
The planned rollout includes technical integration between the CDEx ledger and AfriVest’s tokenization infrastructure, preparation of offering documents, independent valuation, minting of an initial tranche, primary distribution to screened investors and the first on-chain coupon cycle.
Exchange listings are expected to be pursued afterward.
The companies said the model is intended to expand across African markets by combining eduBox’s education commerce platform, CDEx’s cooperative capital-market infrastructure and the allWomen.africa community.
AfriVest and CDEx cautioned that the announcement describes a partnership and proposed program and does not constitute an offer of securities, an invitation to invest or investment advice. They said no investment return is forecast or guaranteed.
AfriVest is the Africa program of DAMREV Group, which provides digital asset infrastructure for African governments, central banks and cooperatives. CDEx operates a digital marketplace for African cooperatives seeking to raise capital through debentures.
eduBox is an education commerce and back-to-school management platform serving parents, schools, merchants, suppliers and couriers.
SUPPORT AFRICAN BUSINESS JOURNALISM
Help XOL Africa expand independent business reporting across Africa.
SUPPORT XOL AFRICA →
