| Currency Name: | African Kingdoms lumi |
| Image 1: | Front of a Lumi Note.png |
| Image Title 1: | First issue in 2018, back facing |
| Pegged With: | Gold (4 grains or 0.2592 grams = 1 lumi) |
| Date Of Introduction: | 2014 |
| Using Countries: | ECO-6 |
| Symbol: | AKL |
| Iso Code: | None |
The African Kingdoms lumi is Africa's new global currency with rapidly growing usage throughout continental Africa and the Sixth Region. In March 2024 the lumi (AKL) joined the basket of global currencies used for African developmental purposes when it was adopted as an official tender by the executive secretary of Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA), a forty-seven (47) member states Pan-African Intergovernmental Agency responsible for increasing accelerated access to water and sanitation in Africa.[1]
The lumi was established as legal tender within the 2014 Bank Act of Accompong, a sovereign indigenous village in Jamaica, and issued to the public by the Central Solar Reserve Bank of Accompong as the currency of the Sovereign Maroon State of Accompong and the other sovereign Maroon territories; lumi physical bank notes were printed in Canada.[2] [3]
The lumi was created by the then Minister of Finance and Founding Governor of the Bank of Accompong, H.R.M. Chief Semako The First King Timothy Elisha McPherson, who also served as plenipotentiary Maroon Secretariat for the Island of Jamaica and is a global financial engineer that hails from the sovereign Maroon territory of Queen Nanny of the Maroons on the Island of Jamaica.[4]
Although the first lumi were printed in 2016[5] [6] for use within Accompong, since 2020 the lumi has been adopted as the official currency by the Economic Community of the States, Nations, Territories and Realms of the African Diaspora 6th Region (ECO-6), which embodies various governmental institutions including: the Republic of Vanuatu, the Nation State of Hawai’i,, World Indigenous Bank, the State of the African Diaspora, the United Kingdoms of Africa, and the African Diaspora Central Bank.[7] [8]
In order to highlight the difference in legal jurisdiction between the sovereignty of the Maroon Territories and the Government of Jamaica, the Bank of Jamaica issued a jurisdictional notice stating that "Any purported issuance of currency of the island of Jamaica by a person or an entity other than the Bank of Jamaica is unauthorised and in breach of the Bank of Jamaica Act," and the Central Bank of Accompong issued a public notice stating that "Financial institutions in Accompong are regulated by the Bank Act of Accommpong, and not by BOJ" thereby both institutions clarifying that the Maroon Bank Act and the Bank Act of Jamaica represent two separate legal jurisdictions.[9] [10] [11]
Underwritten by solar energy through power purchase agreements, the currency is worth 100Kwh of solar energy, with a fixed valuation at 4 grains of gold (0.2592 grams) for 1 AKL making it the first non-fiat currency in the world issued by a modern central bank: the Central Bank of Zimbabwe also adopted a non-fiat currency standard in 2024 when it issued the Mosi-oa-Tunya.[12] [13] [14] The lumi is no longer used as the Accompong currency. Instead, it is now issued exclusively by the African Diaspora Central Bank (ADCB). The Central Solar Reserve Bank was acquired by ADCB when Colonel Richard Currie replaced Colonel Ferron Williams as the new elected Head of State for Accompong.[15]
There currently is only 1 banknote, which represents 1 lumi.In 2021, the African Diaspora Central Bank (ADCB) reported a total of US$1.1 trillion in transactions between Africa and the global diaspora using lumi; this is equal to more than a third of the total GDP for continental Africa at US$2.7 trillion in 2021.[16] [17]