São Tomé and Principe has launched a citizenship-by-investment (CBI) program in partnership with United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based technology firm IOPn, opening the floodgates to tech-savvy investors.
According to a report, São Tomé and Principe’s CBI program leans on blockchain technology, cloud services, and artificial intelligence (AI), a step up from traditional offerings. The UAE-based IOPn will deploy its proprietary OPN Chain and ATLAS platform for São Tomé’s foray into a CBI program.
Typically, a CBI program allows foreigners to gain automatic citizenship in a country after making a qualifying investment in a specific sector of the economy. However, São Tomé’s blockchain-powered CBI program pushes the frontiers by using Web3 technology for identity verification and tracking.
“Our collaboration… ensures transparency, efficiency, and international credibility — while opening new doors for cooperation with the Emirati innovation ecosystem,” said Disney Ramos, Director of São Tomé and Principe’s CBI unit.
Parties to the collaboration stated that blockchain’s immutability will stifle fraud in CBI processes while reducing the speed of processing. While not explicitly stated, there are indications that Sao Tome’s pioneering blockchain-powered solution will be retrofitted with Web3 payment functionality.
IOPn and São Tomé will collaborate on the CBI program for an initial period of five years while operating under a joint governance framework prepared by the African nation.
With technical services provided by IOPn, the move underscores the UAE’s commitment to support digitization in emerging economies. For São Tomé, the CBI offering will attract a new class of investors to set up shop in the country without the hassle of bureaucracy and red tape.
“This partnership is truly historic,” said Mojtaba, Chief Executive Officer of IOPn. “By introducing the world’s first Citizenship-by-Investment program on blockchain, São Tomé and Principe is setting a global benchmark for digital sovereignty, and the UAE is proudly at the heart of this transformation.”
Putting UAE technology at the fore
The deal between IOPn and São Tomé and Principe highlights the UAE’s growing interest in sovereign digital infrastructure. Experts have identified a surge in the demand for Emirati technology talent across Africa and Asia in AI and blockchain verticals.
With blockchain, the UAE has emerged as a regional leader, pioneering use cases in carbon tracking, tokenization, and cross-border payments. Meanwhile, the country is making significant strides with AI after its localized large language models (LLMs) competed favorably against those of OpenAI and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
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Vietnam records significant progress with its national blockchain infrastructure initiative
In other news, barely ten months after launching a national blockchain initiative, Vietnam has made significant progress, achieving impressive adoption levels and introducing new utilities.
Phan Duc Trung, Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Assets Association (VBA), said the country is streamrolling toward digital sovereignty by leaning on homegrown solutions. Trung disclosed the milestone at the First Party Congress of the Government, noting that attempts to develop a national blockchain solution have gained momentum.
Early in the year, the Southeast Asian country launched the Vietnam Blockchain Service Network (VBSN), a multi-chain infrastructure project designed to support national digitization. Since its rollout, the VBSN has created six distinct layer 1 blockchain platforms tailored for a range of sector-specific use cases.
Each L1 blockchain platform offers varying degrees of decentralization, processing speeds, and diverse consensus mechanisms. Trung noted in his keynote speech that the VBSN project has found utility in finance, healthcare, decentralized identity, logistics, and education.
Apart from its technical brilliance, several factors have contributed to the VBSN’s success since its launch at the start of the year. The project leans on the expertise of local and international technology firms, including Sotatek, NCC, Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN), and AlphaTrue.
Furthermore, industry heavyweights such as Techcombank, One Mount Group, and Techcom Securities have declared their support for the national blockchain solution. In terms of management, VBSN is run by 1Matrix, a strategic consultancy affiliated with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), with the VBA providing additional oversight.
While the private sector has emerged as a major adopter of the VBSN, Vietnamese government agencies are also embracing the solution. Trung confirmed that the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Committees and the Resolution 57 Steering Committee in Da Nang are improving their efficiency and productivity with the VBSN.
The endgame with VBSN is to ensure that Vietnam asserts greater control over its digital infrastructure, thereby reducing its dependence on foreign-based service providers.
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Jumping headlong towards digitization
Vietnam has announced its intention to become the leading hub for emerging technologies in Southeast Asia, bolstering its efforts with a range of forward-thinking initiatives. The latest government initiative is the launch of a five-year digital asset framework pilot for investors and service providers.
However, early attempts at digitization have yielded impressive results for the Southeast Asian country. In the first half of 2025, digital payments surged by nearly 40%, with 12 billion transactions, as cash-based payments reached a new low, while AI use cases continued to rise.
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Source: https://coingeek.com/sao-tome-and-principe-rolls-out-blockchain-based-citizenship-program/
