I just finished reading a whitepaper on blockchain technology, authored by Africa’s pioneer fintech company, Interswitch. It is not surprising coming from the integrated payments and digital commerce company – considering the catalytic role it played many years ago when it began the digitization of payments in Nigeria, and eventual transition to the web. To a large extent, the foundational infrastructure which Interswitch built became an operating system for the first era of Nigeria’s digital commerce. As far back as then, even the banks were powered by the company’s infrastructure.
Looking into the future, Africa has a high potential to feature prominently in the second wave of the innovation age, in which autonomous systems and AI systems will become very dominant, but this will be largely built on our ability to take a commanding position. It is exciting to see that companies are gradually embracing blockchain technology and the technological advancement it brings to bear.
Data will be the enabler and that is consistent with Pythagoras’ postulation that nations and commerce are nothing but numbers (yes, data). But the question is “How do you make sure those numbers are trusted, readily available and useful?” Blockchain provides those checkmarks. And that means from law to finance, insurance to supply chain, and beyond, an enabling tech exists to help. That is what the paper is essentially saying.
But as the paper noted, we need to get the regulations right and we need to get our young people ready – and that means the universities and training ecosystems must deepen capabilities to prepare them.
In the end, I think what needs to happen here is for reliable companies like Interswitch to do what they do best: show people the way. And once governments and companies are convinced that this method works, others will join. We want innovation: “Blockchain technology has the potential to foster innovation”.
You can download the paper here – https://www.interswitchgroup.com/blockchain
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