Kenya Moving to Blockchain Technology
President Kenyatta Backs the Adoption of Blockchain Technology
In what came as an unexpected move from the Digital Savvy Kenyan president, President Uhuru Kenyatta backed Blockchain Technology during the “Digital Drivers: Enabling the Growth of Africa’s Digital Economy” event at Strathmore University earlier today. The event was held in partnership with US Department of Commerce — Africa Business Centre and Microsoft.
The president, in the event packed with industry leaders, innovators, educators and government officials, called to the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology to come up with a team (taskforce) to look into blockchain technology and the impact it could speak in the country. Among the key activities of this task force will be the coming up of an action plan on the integration of blockchain in the country.
“MPESA, M-Kopa, GroIntelligence, Andela and others, show that we can lead the world with innovations that drive financial inclusion, access to energy, better data to drive our agriculture, and the essential skills required to support the young innovators of the future,” (CIO East Africa) the president finished his speech as he paved way for the World Blockchain Summit to be held in Nairobi from 23rd to 24th March and a wave of blockchain disruption in the country from now on.
Does this mean Cryptocurrency Trading is now legal in Kenya?
The adoption of blockchain and an endorsement from the president could be a huge boost to the legalization of cryptocurrency trading in the Kenyan market. However, the backing of blockchain by the government does not mean that cryptocurrency markets are already legal. While most cryptocurrencies are blockchain ideas/solutions, blockchain technology can be implemented in a State without the need of a cryptocurrency market. Blockchain is a decentralized system for enforcing trust, transparency, accountability and high data security across industries and not just a financial tool linked with the crypto-market. Despite this, expect national support for Kenyan token sales and initial coin offerings for blockchain ideas (Example: Nuru Coin) in a bid to support young innovators in the blockchain space.
What does this speak for Kenyan IOT Innovation?
It remains unclear how adoption waves will shape themselves across sectors in the country. Since blockchain has been a significant tool for high security and accountability in financial sectors across the world, Banks, insurance companies and financial entities could be the premier adopters of blockchain and also a big focus segment for the taskforce to be set by the Ministry of ICT. In spite of that, Kenyans should expect adoption in finance to trigger integration of blockchain in industries like supply-chain management, government accountability and even media. Apart from Nuru Coin, among the companies that will gain so much from this move is African Blockchain Initiative (ABI). Currently based in South Africa but with Kenyan co-founders, ABI will be seeking to get corporations on the blockchain through education. Their corporate workshops inform companies about the blockchain in detail, aid companies to design blockchain solutions for their industry workspace before they link them to worldwide renown blockchain developers for execution of designed blockchain innovations (African Blockchain Initiative)
This move will definitely have positive impact in the country. Hopefully, the young population in Kenya will be focused on blockchain innovations rather than the addictive profit-inspired cryptocurrency market. What will be my biggest bull for blockchain to tackle? Elections. That’s the biggest problem in the country facing lack of trust, transparency and accountability. Blockchain will be of huge impact if we can start seeing such fragile national systems backed by emerging technology. This is in no doubt the commencement of Kenya’s blockchain disruption.
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Originally published at africanblockchaininitiative.com.
