By Chimezie Godfrey
Developing nations like Nigeria stand a chance to benefit from the 1.76 trillion USD market if they can position themselves to adopt and leverage on the Blockchain technologies.
The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa made this disclosure in Abuja at the day two of Digital Nigeria International Conference Exhibitions and Awards.
The NITDA boss said “Developing countries like Nigeria, if we position ourselves, we can increase our GDP by at least 0.5 percent, which is almost 25 billion US dollars. So today we are here to explore how we can position ourselves. The government has been doing it. It is on site. We have developed the blockchain adoption strategies.
He revealed that the Blockchain adoption strategies has four initiatives which are; firstly, to establish consortia that will build the ecosystem. “And today we are here to build that ecosystem and community. And secondly, to strengthen the regulatory instruments and have legal framework. Last week, the president signed the Nigerian startup Bill into law, now Nigeria Startup Act 2022, which is going to provide legal instruments for all emerging technologies, including blockchain.”
Inuwa noted that the third initiative is to incentivise the ecosystem which would encourage the building of use cases using blockchain adding that the Start Up Act would to achieve that as well. He added that the fourth is to build sandbox. “We are going to work with you to develop sandbox for proof of concept and proof of value around blockchains. So, all this government is doing to make Nigeria attractive to blockchain investment.
While calling on Nigerians to leverage on the platform provided to come and innovate because there are so many challenges and real-life problems that need urgent solutions the, the Director General believes “that with blockchain, Nigeria can solve a lot of challenges confronting them. We have identified four key areas which we think blockchain can help Nigeria solve a lot of problems.
He listed the benefit of Blockchain to include; tracking and tracing. We can use it to solve our supply chain challenges. We can use it to track records like land titles. We can use it to track certificate, vaccine, and so many things, anything you can think of that needs that trust.
He said the technology can also address payment system challenges and financial inclusion, adding that it can also be used to strengthen our identity management. “Not only personal identity, but even thing’s identity. We are talking about Internet of Things. That means everything connected to internet needs to be identified. With Blockchain, you can achieve that when you use blockchain and IoT; You can use it to manage even government spending. In budgeting process, you can use it to attach every single budget to what it is budgeted for so that you can trace and make sure there is traceability for every spending to government.”
The session witnessed panel discussions on “Prioritising Blockchain Technology;” Implication for Digital Asset Innovation, “Impact of Blockchain on a Digital Economy; The Myth, The Truth and the Opportunities” One World Connected with Blockchain,” while the highlights of the summit were the inauguration of Blockchain Campus Ambassadors and evolution of Blockchain Technology in Nigeria in the form of a story.
