Polygon partners with Niger to build billion dollar blockchain

• Polygon is partnering with Niger to develop a blockchain ecosystem for the future of the country.
• Niger believes blockchain can boost its economic status despite a low adoption rate.

Polygon has announced its partnership with the landlocked West African country of Niger facilitate the development of the region’s blockchain ecosystem. As a country that ranked 189 out of 191 in the United Nations Human Development Report, Niger seems to have been relegated to the background of its counterparts in the Sahel region. It is one of the countries described as having a poorly diversified economy.

The polygon effect

The Polygon blockchain platform believes that Niger has great prospects that are somewhat related to the younger generation in the country. According to a tweet made by Polygon about Niger, the protocol said it “believes in its enormous potential, sustained by its dynamic youth.”

While the country has not had a significant level of blockchain technology adoption so far, Jordi Baylina, the technical lead and co-founder of Polygon led a team in 2018 to organize a regional hackathon in Niamey, the capital of Niger. The Sahel Hackathon was focused on addressing gender inequality. It was during that time that it was discovered that only one fifth of developers in Africa are women.

.@0xPolygon Co-founder @jbaylina led the Sahel hackathon to address gender inequality in Niamey back in 2018. It is estimated that only 1/5 developers in Africa are women. pic.twitter.com/IGwed32RjM

— Polygon (Labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) 5 May 2023

The discovery led to the decision to promote inclusion and female participation in blockchain and Web 3.0-based events. So far, Polygon has entered into strategic collaborations with Impact Plus and the GeoAnalytics Center, a technology-focused non-governmental organization in Niamey. Meanwhile, the trio is focused on three activities that they plan to achieve with outstanding results to show for it.

To begin with, they have begun surveying blockchain ecosystems with the goal of identifying local projects to take on.

Once these grassroots projects have been identified as suitable for the most appropriate blockchain technology, discussions with stakeholders including government, youth, tertiary institutions, startups and indicators will begin to gain their support for the potential policy.

In this roundtable meeting, Polygon welcomes various innovative perspectives to enhance the projects already identified. Then there will be a debate with the community to discuss and explain their findings. Ultimately, Polygon seeks strategies to promote diversity and inclusion of Web 3.0 in Niger.

Africa is slowly adopting Blockchain technology

In general, countries in Africa have been slow to adopt blockchain technology, but a handful of nations such as Nigeria are seeing gradual growth in this regard. A few months ago, the Unstoppable Women of Web3 celebrated the last International Women’s Day by pledging to educate over six million women in Africa on Web 3.0 and the metaverse.

Sandy Carter, founder of Unstoppable Women of Web3 and COO and Head of Business Development at Unstoppable Domains explained;

Africa has one of the fastest growing Web3 sectors today, but it is not exempt from the gender equality issues we see around the world, and we need to make sure everyone has a seat at the table.

Currently, Nigeria is the first African country launch Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) called e-Naira. Although the same country had previously banned the active use of cryptocurrency, which shows a somewhat lack of clarity in the guidelines for blockchain adoption.

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