Not every institution needs the same digital system. ACE designs and delivers bespoke digital trade solutions — portals, registers, market observatories and integrations — built on shared ACE infrastructure, owned by you, connected to the continental market.
Request a solution →Sometimes a national register needs a different field. Sometimes a chamber of commerce needs a portal that talks to its members. Sometimes a producer organisation needs a shared catalogue before the standard market is ready.
ACE builds those solutions — using the same infrastructure that powers the rest of the platform, so that whatever we build connects naturally to the wider African free trade market. You get a system designed for your specific reality, and it does not become an island.
Every engagement starts with the same question: what do you actually need, and what does the standard ACE platform already give you? Sometimes the honest answer is that you need a custom build. Sometimes it is that the standard platform already covers it and you only need configuration. We will tell you which is which.
Each example below is a type of engagement we can scope and deliver. If what you need is different, describe it in your request and we will design around it.
A digital front door for a ministry, a chamber, an authority or an industry association. Public-facing, branded for your institution, integrated with ACE identity and verification behind the scenes.
Custom registries for practitioners, producers, products, facilities or licensed activities. Designed around the fields, workflows and levels that matter to your sector, with public or restricted verification.
Data and dashboards that show what is happening in a market — volumes, origins, prices, participants, compliance. Built from ACE transaction data plus any national data you choose to integrate.
A curated catalogue of verified producers, cooperatives or suppliers under your own brand. Useful where an institution wants to present its members to buyers in a structured, credible way.
ACE connects to what you already run — a national ID system, a customs platform, an existing registry, a certification body's database. We design the bridge, you keep your system.
Where the need is not a new system but a better process, we map it, redesign it, and configure ACE to run it. Documentation, training and handover included.
Custom work makes sense when the standard platform covers most of what you need but not all of it — or when the boundary between your institution and the wider market needs its own digital shape.
A ministry needs a public portal, an internal register, a reporting dashboard, or a link between a national system and continental trade infrastructure.
A regional economic community or continental institution wants shared digital infrastructure across member states, with common rules and reporting.
An association wants to present its members digitally, verify them credibly, and connect them to buyers — under its own brand and governance.
A certifier or regulator needs a digital workflow for applications, approvals, revocations and public verification that connects to ACE product records.
A business with a complex operation — multiple sites, suppliers or product lines — needs a digital system that fits its own structure and still speaks to the wider market.
A funded programme wants a digital component that is honest, verifiable and connects to real market infrastructure rather than becoming a standalone pilot that stops at the end of funding.
Every engagement starts with the same discipline: understand the need, define the scope, agree the price, deliver in stages, hand over cleanly.
A scoping discussion with the people who will actually use the system.
A written requirements document, agreed by you before design starts.
Scope, deliverables, timeline, cost and responsibilities. You decide before anything proceeds.
Work delivered in reviewable stages, with joint sign-off before each next stage.
Documentation, training, and clarity on what you own and what stays on ACE infrastructure.
These are the boundaries that keep custom work honest, useful and durable.
Every custom solution is built on the shared ACE infrastructure, so it links naturally to identity, verification, certification, payments and the wider market. Custom work is not a standalone pilot that dies when the funding stops.
We will not start building until the requirements are written down and agreed. This protects both sides — you know what you will receive, and we know what we are accountable for.
At the start of the engagement, we set out clearly what you own — the domain, the data, the content, the brand — and what remains part of shared ACE infrastructure. No surprises at handover.
ACE will not build a system that replaces a competent authority's legal role, that holds customer funds on your behalf, or that makes a claim about your institution that is not grounded in something that has actually happened.
We will also say no to a project we do not believe we can deliver honestly — rather than take the work and under-deliver. That is part of how we protect the credibility of everything else on ACE.
Describe the problem, the institution, and the outcome you are looking for. ACE will contact you at the email you provide, arrange a discovery call, and prepare a written proposal with scope, timeline and cost. Nothing is charged until you accept it.