His company, Ubuntu Tribe, launched its GIFT Gold token in Singapore on October 1. Each token represents one milligram of gold — like splitting a gold bar into 31,000 digital shares — stored in vaults across Switzerland, Germany, Dubai, and Singapore. The product targets people who can’t meet the minimum investments traditional gold dealers require.
The Career That Revealed the Gap
Toure’s work took him across 26 African markets over 20 years. He watched traditional finance serve corporations and governments while ignoring the populations that needed it most. “Traditional gold investment requires thousands of dollars. That excludes 360 million unbanked adults in Sub-Saharan Africa who need protection from currency devaluation most,” Toure said.
That experience showed him a problem banks wouldn’t solve: millions of people locked out of wealth preservation tools while inflation eroded their savings. Ubuntu Tribe emerged from that gap.
The model addresses a straightforward problem. Gold has climbed roughly 1,000% since 2000, outpacing most emerging market currencies. But traditional dealers require minimum investments that exclude most Africans from accessing that protection.
Ubuntu Tribe uses blockchain to track fractional ownership of physical gold reserves. “When someone buys our GIFT Gold tokens, they’re not betting on algorithms or market sentiment. They’re buying actual gold stored in Swiss vaults, verified by independent auditors,” Toure explained.
The company maintains a Track-n-Trace system that lets anyone with internet access verify reserves in real time. Toure said Ubuntu Tribe selected partners based on traditional finance credentials. “Everything gets published publicly. We chose partners based on their reputation in traditional finance, not crypto,” he said.
Token holders can request physical gold delivery, though the company expects most to keep their holdings digital. The focus on transparency stems from a string of crypto blowups — projects that claimed backing by real assets but folded once auditors found the vaults empty.
Ubuntu Tribe falls under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework—detailed disclosures, reserve requirements, regular audits. But that regulatory footing stops at Europe’s borders. In Nigeria and Kenya, where Ubuntu Tribe sees its main opportunities, the rules look entirely different.
Toure points to this patchwork as a drag on growth. “Unified standards would let us scale faster, reduce costs, and pass those savings to users.”
Ubuntu Tribe isn’t the first to tokenize gold. Established players already offer regulated products in most of major markets. Financial institutions and crypto startups both race to digitize commodities, real estate, and other physical assets.
The company’s success in Africa will depend on whether it can secure regulatory approvals in key markets and convince users to trust that tokens genuinely represent gold reserves. The continent has adopted digital finance before — mobile money moved over $1 trillion in 2024, more than Kenya’s entire GDP, by filling gaps banks left open.
Toure declined to speculate on expansion timelines beyond stating a principle. “Any future expansion would need to serve the same fundamental purpose: protecting purchasing power for people who lack access to traditional wealth preservation tools,” he said.
The model combines regulatory compliance, verifiable reserves, and fractional ownership to tackle barriers that have kept gold investment out of reach. Currency devaluation continues to erode savings in markets where formal financial services remain scarce.
Toure’s two decades structuring deals across African markets and Ubuntu Tribe’s early regulatory compliance provide advantages that many tokenization projects lack. Whether those credentials can bridge the gap between high finance and financial inclusion will depend on execution in markets that need the solution most.
The man who once moved billions now focuses on 10-cent tokens. The scale changed. The mission — protecting purchasing power for those traditional finance excluded — stayed the same.