Is Africa Ready For Blockchain Disruption?
By: Kamau Nyabwengi
Tags: Bitcoin

Is Africa Ready For Blockchain Disruption?

Africa is very responsive to technological advancements and that is why multinationals focus on it so much. It is a good center for emerging technologies and some innovations such as mobile money transfer can be traced back here.

We can’t talk about emerging technologies and fail to mention blockchain. However, when most people hear about blockchain, bitcoin as well comes to their minds. Even though Bitcoin was the first application to run on the blockchain, the two items refer to different things altogether. In a layman’s language, blockchain is a public distributed ledger that is decentralized. There is no central authority that controls it and decisions are reached through consensus. So, how is this technology likely to benefit Africans?

Payment gateways

What are the challenges that you face when you want to buy goods online through international merchants like eBay, Amazon or Alibaba? Settling payment has always been an issue. Take for instance when you have money in your bank account but in Kenyan currency. These online international merchants will force you to convert your currency to ‘acceptable currency’ such as US dollars. The conversion rate at their interface is always high and you will lose some money in the process.

Bitcoin was introduced to cut off the intermediaries and eradicate superiority of some currencies. Other cryptocurrencies have also come up and they are making transactions even simpler. Think about a situation where we have a currency that is acceptable all over the world and you can purchase products at the click of a button.

Voting process

Most African countries are always marred by electoral malpractices and in some cases, they are followed by violence. The problem is that the systems in place can be compromised and people end up being led by leaders they never elected in the first place.

So, how can blockchain solve this? A public ledger will be distributed to various observers. When a single vote is cast, all the observers can see. Verification of the votes will be done by individuals from different parts and once validated, it is added to a block. For one to change the tally, he or she should control more than 51% of the ledger which is impossible. Altering one vote will affect all the others in the subsequent blocks and all those connected to the blockchain will be notified.

Identity management

How many times have you heard about a piece of land that is sold to multiple individuals? It is very common in Africa and people have lost lots of cash in the process. In Kenya, the government is already working on establishing a blockchain based land registry platform. The citizens will be able to know the original owner of the land to avoid frauds that are very common. Dubious cons in the real estate sector will be a thing of the past once this system is fully operational. Other sectors that can benefit from this technology include transport authorities and hospitals that have to file all lot of information on their patients.

Management

One of the biggest challenges that face many organizations is management. You may be using outdated systems that are not inefficient but also prohibitive in nature. Let us take for instance a typical organization with junior employees and the management. When a junior performs a task, he or she is most cases forwards the results to the seniors for action. With blockchain, the juniors do not have to forward tasks because of the systems updates automatically. This ensures that there are efficiency and no time wastage.

The adoption of emerging technologies will impact on many sectors on the African continent. Some people are still skeptical about their viability but it is expected since it can be somehow hard to crack.