- Border delays cut from weeks to minutes as TLIP allows instant trade document sharing via IOTA.
- Kenyan traders report an 80% cost drop, 96% faster border processes from the automated TLIP pilot use.
Trade Logistics Information Pipeline (TLIP) is making measurable gains in East Africa via pilot initiatives. Based on the TWIN network and operating on the blockchain of IOTA, the technology is designed to enhance logistics visibility. In practice, trade-related paperwork delays, which took weeks, are today being resolved in less than five minutes by UK border authorities.
TLIP (built on IOTA) is already creating real impact in the real world.
Key insights below 👇
We are right now focused on expanding this solution together with our partners. Data will be digitized, assets will be tokenized and the real world will come onchain.
— Dominik Schiener (@DomSchiener) June 1, 2025
During the IOTA East Africa Web3 Innovation Summit, the development of TLIP was introduced by Antony Magayu of the IOTA Foundation. He outlined how exporters, agencies, and freight providers are utilizing the platform to exchange trade documents directly from their systems. This eliminates the necessity for emails or intermediaries, reducing delays and manual errors.
TLIP is designed to connect everyone in the trade chain, from producers and processors to ports, customs agencies, and final customers. It provides for the exchange of documents in real time while ensuring trust among participants through systems that can be verified and data that is open to access.
Kenya’s Trade Revolution—Costs Slashed 80%, Border Efficiency Soars 96%
Fresh pilot data available from Kenya illustrate the cost and operating effect of TLIP. Kenyan traders have seen their transaction costs decline by 80%, which provides significant encouragement for it to be taken up more extensively. For stakeholders in developing economies, this decline is particularly significant where costs are more visibly the major obstacles.
Cross-border dependability has likewise evidenced obvious gains. Cross-border processes have seen the platform attribute to it a 96% boost in effective cross-border transactions. Such gains come primarily as a result of TLIP automating processes and improving logistics dependability for exporters and importers.
In addition to improving efficiency and cost, TLIP has also benefited from the participation of small and medium-sized enterprise players. There was an increase in SME participation of 35%, verifying that the elimination of manual bottlenecks is facilitating more companies to participate in cross-border trade.
Real-Time Trade Digitalization Becomes a Working Model
The structure of TLIP demonstrates underlying principles undergirding enduring digital commerce systems. TLIP emphasizes three key attributes: it is accessible to all, it establishes trustworthy information verified by each exchange, and it is highly interoperable across government and private systems. With this base, all partners are able to access and act upon accurate, timely data.
The IOTA Foundation model shies away from making future-centric promises. TLIP is already being used today in real-world environments, and its effects are already manifest in concrete customs procedures and trading networks. Such practical application distinguishes it from most other digital pilot programs that are still mired in test modes.
Trade transactions in East Africa have already begun to reap gains through TLIP implementation, particularly in cases where port and customs interactions were once sluggish. Through ongoing usage, the effect of the network can extend even farther beyond borders and usher in standardization across regions.
