How African governments can leverage blockchain for cashless growth
As the rise of Blockchain accelerates digital payments in Nigeria with the introduction of central bank digital currencies, regulation is a key infrastructure tool in Nigeria for seamless adoption.
This was disclosed by Sam Lee, founder of Blockchain Center, and Jeffrey Wu, CEO of Actionable Strategies on Monday, during the second edition of the Africa Cashless Payment Conference attended by Nairametrics.
They noted that the focus must be on driving adoption, which must be driven in all areas for all types of goods.
Sam Lee stated that digitization of money is inevitable and more efficient and that Blockchain builds trust and transparency with regulatory challenges to follow to prevent clashes.
- He said “In six years (2014-2020), the growth of digital payments in China helped China move into mobile infrastructure (Alipay, WeChatPay) and a key pillar that lifted people out of poverty and connected them to global opportunities.”
He added that big data uses AI to improve insights from digital purchases, citing that
- “Blockchain, enabling payment infrastructure for trust, transparency and efficiency. This can be done through better regulation, as the focus must be on driving adoption, which must be driven in all areas for all types of goods.
- “Blockchain accelerates digital payments and needs regulation as a key infrastructure tool like the Nigerian Enaira.”
Jeffrey Wu stated that digital currencies are enablers that make the technology needed for it viable.
“Digital application can enable Africa from the most unbanked to rapid economic growth for a large number of people. Achieving critical mass adoption is as important as the technology itself. Platform development must be designed for today’s systems, but needs better long-term use for technology use.
He said that investments flow freely to opportunities that are viable and provide realistic returns identified and managed, citing that focusing on the population will not yield investment, as the focus must be on driving adoption, which must be driven in all areas for all types of Merchant
- “Governments must also reduce frictional adoption and increase adoption that will help private stakeholders towards a cashless adoption in society,” he said.
For the record: Recall Nairametrics research noted that the era of cash-based transactions is gradually becoming a thing of the past as more cashless forms of payment continue to be developed and adopted in the Nigerian financial industry.
This comes as the use of various cashless payment methods, such as POS terminals, instant bank transfers, mobile transfers and others have already registered significant growth in the country. One such innovation is tokenization.
Some of the companies at the forefront of these innovations are Interswitch and Mastercard. Recently, Interswitch partnered with Providus Bank, Mastercard and Thales to launch a contactless Tap-to-Pay transaction via smart devices. The service allows cardholders to make fast, secure and convenient in-store payments by tapping their NFC-enabled smart device on a contactless payment terminal.
