Africa ready to use blockchain to leapfrog other regions: NITDA’s Kashifu Inuwa on CoinGeek Backstage
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While the Western world developed landline infrastructure for communication, Africa lagged behind. But then came the mobile phone, and since it had not invested billions in the landline, Africa was able to adopt mobile phones at a faster rate than the West. Kashifu Inuwa believes that with blockchain technology, Africa is about to leapfrog the West again.
Inuwa is the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Nigerian government agency that invests in emerging technology.
Inuwa has been one of the Nigerian government’s key leaders pioneering blockchain adoption in the country.
Speaking to CoinGeek’s Becky Liggero, he revealed that what he looks for in a blockchain network is “scalability and trust. With a public blockchain like BSV, it builds trust and makes the downsides less troubling, so the authorities can easily work with the founders to co-create regulations and build practical cases that can make life better.”
NITDA operates the NITDA Academy, which seeks to train and graduate developers in Nigeria. It has now partnered with Domineum Blockchain Solutions and the BSV Blockchain Academy to “educate our people in how to use technology. We have an ambitious goal of having 95% digital literacy by 2030.”
NITDA has continued to work with the BSV community, and is a key part of events such as the Blockchain Developers Summit in July and Blockchain Day at the Digital Nigeria International Conference in October.
Inuwa believes the time for Africa to leapfrog its peers has come, and blockchain is the key.
“We have the talent, we have the resources, and we are ready to jump. We have the legacy infrastructure, therefore we can easily use blockchain to jump in many sectors, especially in the financial sector. We need to increase our financial inclusion. Blockchain can easily help us achieve this, as well as strengthen our democracy and make governance more efficient and transparent.”
See: BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Blockchain in Africa
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