2018 Tutu Fellow Temi Marcella Awogboro has written thought piece titled Blockchain: The Opportunity for the Africa Market. In it, she poses the question as to whether blockchain technology can not just open new vistas for African business and society, but go further - help developing nations leapfrog more developed economies? She points out that a lack of existing infrastructure has been used as an opportunity by developing nations in the past. An example has been the early adoption of digital technology, leading developed nations with heavily established analogue infrastructure.
She says the potential benefits for a developing economy being early adopters of blockchain are extensive. These include increased transparency, more efficient and cost-effective transactions, and growth in local technological centres to build up infrastructure and export knowledge learned.
Temi argues that the application of blockchain across Africa is not limited to finance. She says it is found in such industries as self-sovereign identity, agriculture, energy, healthcare, insurance, supply chain logistics and NFT’s. She says that emerging markets could rapidly adopt blockchain because of their underbanked populations, higher banking risks, and lower bank penetration. She says that unlike developed economies, financial service providers in emerging markets are limited, something blockchain can reverse due to its decentralised nature. Decentralisation reduces centralised costs and can also eradicate intermediaries such as brokers, bankers or lawyers.
The article also provides a useful explanation of how blockchain tech actually works.
To help achieve progress towards financial inclusion, the World Bank recommends that policies such as a digital ID be implemented and mobile financial services be allowed to thrive. These steps are closely tied to blockchain technology.
Temi is an Executive Director at Evercare Hospital Lekki and Co-Founder of Kairos Angels and an experienced senior private equity executive with more than 10 years of experience across developed and growing markets.
You can read the entire thought piece at her website.
The cover photo to this news post is from her site.
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