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“Blockchain will do a lot for Nigeria” – Chris Ani

Published

6 years ago

April 30, 2018

The Nigerian lawmakers recently had a proposal put to look into understanding and regulating the blockchain technology. This has caused quite a stir in the Nigerian blockchain space and Chris Ani the CEO of Digital Abundance spoke at the Lagos blockchain meetup that held on April 28, 2018. He spoke on the topic titled;” How can Nigeria apply the Blockchain to improve governance?”

Infrastructure Needed

The first point of call for any nation willing to adopt the blockchain technology is to ensure that the said country is technologically ready. Chris Ani points this out as he used Dubai as a case study, he pinpoints the fact that Dubai was technologically ready for its blockchain adoption. The UAE country has set up a strategy to improve governmental efficiency by 2020. Dubai will be shifting 100 percent of government transactions to the Blockchain network as well as cutting down on almost 100 million paper transactions, thereby encouraging paperless transactions. Therefore, if the Nigerian government wants to adopt this technology the first point of call should be putting in place infrastructures that will support the adoption of the technology.

Education is the Key

Less than 50% of the Nigerian population are connected to the internet and this is a challenge for the Nigerian government. How does it adopt a technology where most of its citizens are unaware of it? This is why Chris Ani says “the first thing a nation should do is to educate its people.” He talked about data sharing and how government leaders are beginning to respond to the potential of the blockchain to address data sharing problem. But before this technology can be adopted in Nigeria, there is the need for an understanding of the distributed ledger technology and this can only be accomplished through education.

Chris Ani also talked about blockchain for city building. He used Dubai as a case study analyzing the country’s recent step in implementing a citywide pilot to implement the blockchain technology in city services. The goal is to offer the government services on interoperable blockchain and create a cohesive ecosystem that can dramatically reduce wasted time, effort and resources.

Better Agro-economy

Nigeria has once prospered as an agro-economy and it can prosper again with the application of blockchain ‘food solutions.’ Chris Ani talks on blockchain for food solutions, “Blockchain is contributing to many promising advances in the areas of food safety and authenticity. While there might not yet be wide scale examples of the benefits to consumers, we can find validations for such projects and inspiration by studying Dubai and the UAE. This will focus on incorporating blockchain and internet of things (IoT) to quickly and accurately track food products from farm to fork and everywhere in-between. Making this data easily accessible can enhance the ability of officials and consumers to take action before and after a health violation or food poisoning incident takes place.” This way, agricultural products from Nigeria can be trusted all over the world.
Nigeria lawmakers are already going the forward way by raising a motion that is blockchain based. The hope is that the government will begin to set up the infrastructure that will accommodate this technology as well as spread its knowledge to the citizens. it will definitely take a while but the country is hungry for a change and the blockchain technology and its transparency is just what we need.