HOW TO CREATE A BLOCKCHAIN ECONOMY IN MENA
As the first blockchain based payment gateway of the Middle East and North Africa, MenaPay organized a special workshop with Princess of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia H. H. Hanadi Ahmad Khadher and tokenized economy expert Miko Matsumura on October 2nd, 2018 in Istanbul.
The best of two worlds
Princess Khadher combined Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision with Matsumura’s blockchain know-how to support MenaPay project aiming to serve the 84% unbanked population of MENA. Exceeding 440 million people, MENA population is critical to world economy and to tokenized economy endeavors. MenaPay workshop with expert help and enthusiastic investors created a bridge between MENA and the wider blockchain world.
Target: 10 million active users
MenaPay is creating a stable cryptocurrency to integrate these unbanked people to the digital transformation process of finance in the region. Fuelled with blockchain technology and founded in February 2018, MenaPay will provide a fully Islamic Finance compliant and convenient payment solution for people and companies in MENA region. In order to reach its goal of 10 million active users by 2019, MenaPay added an important name to its board members, Princess of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H. H. Hanadi Ahmad Khadher.
Joining forces
MenaPay partners with and receive advice from valuable names of blockchain world. This is why Miko Matsumura also joined to the productive workshop MenaPay organized, so that the company could build a bridge between the Middle East & North Africa, and the wider blockchain ecosystem. A functional and concrete bridge, offering a real solution to a real problem: Financial inclusion of the 400 million unbanked people in MENA region.
Known by his investments in different blockchain enterprises and advisory on selected cryptocurrencies, Miko Matsumura attended the workshop where board and team members of MenaPay discussed the developments in distributed ledger technologies and future of possible partnerships in MENA.
More to come
After the workshop held in MenaPay Istanbul office and exchange of opinions, MenaPay hosted a VIP meeting with more than 40 people including investors, advisors, entrepreneurs, key opinion leaders of Middle East and its exclusive guests Miko Matsumura and H. H. Hanadi Ahmad Khadher.
During this VIP meeting; Miko Matsumura, Princess H. H. Hanadi and investors talked about the usage of blockchain payment system and how it will change daily life and financial system in MENA region, and especially how MenaPay will comply with the local regulations and Islamic Finance.
The fireside chat
After discussing the structure of MenaPay with key opinion leaders of the Middle East, Miko Matsumura stated that MenaPay is a quite promising business in terms of the blockchain technology it provides and the region it focuses and said: “MENA is an important gateway to a much larger footprint. As MenaPay expands it will have access to one of the largest populations on the planet. Here you have extremely large countries like Indonesia, smaller countries like Malaysia, North Africa, and countries like Nigeria, which will end up larger than the United States. MENA is a very meaningful entry point.”
Mobility and financial inclusion for over 440 million people
If you want to mobilize MENA population for greater financial inclusion, you need a mobile payment solution supported by an Islamic finance compliant blockchain system in MENA said MenaPay and Matsumura answered:
“Decentralized cryptocurrencies coupled with things like mobile applications really have a huge potential to address the fastest growing segment of financial services. When you look at the tier of people who are unbanked — that is probably the fastest growing, not just in terms of total number, but also in terms of economic potential.”
Fully backed stable currency: MenaCash
Of course, compliance is not enough. People need stability, too and Matsumura acknowledged this in a so very clear way:
“Stability is important in terms of the functional utility of money, as a spending money. That is important.”
But if you ask what about incentives, MenaPay has an answer for that too: Sharing economy and we are sharing 75% of our revenues with token holders. It is a win-win situation, and when it comes to sharing economy Matsumura has a clear idea:
“I can speak to tokens’ value. To me, tokens that have mechanics that incentivize positive user behavior tend to do better. From the perspective of correct incentives that mechanic is valuable.”
Sharing economy will let you to rent your car directly to individuals in future should you wish so and maybe you will use MenaPay’s P2P payment solution for that.
How to play is OK
So where to play? At this respect, Princess of KSA H. H. Hanadi underlined the potential of MenaPay and how it fits the Saudi Vision 2030 program; a long-term development program that seeks to diversify the economy and promote the integral development of the nation:
“The vision of 2030 of Saudi Arabia, aims for the best in all fields, His Highness Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman tries to provide the best opportunities for Saudi Arabia to be on the top of leading nations, this is why I expect MenaPay to achieve a huge success, as it goes along with Islamic religion instructions, and as long as its value backed-up by the US Dollar.”
Powering up
Executive Board Member of MenaPay, Burak Balık stated:
“Non-bank mobile payment solutions such as AliPay dominate China. We’re developing a better solution on blockchain with an Islamic Finance compliant approach. We have a laser focused team experienced on blockchain technology, fintech industry and Middle East and North Africa region. We’re really happy to have a fruitful workshop together with the valuable people such as Miko Matsumura and Princess Hanadi.”
The future is here
MenaPay is accelerating the digital transformation of MENA region with the single currency it creates and contributes the region with the technology it builds and advices it gets from the key opinion leaders. Some say the journey is important, and some highlights the destination. In the end MenaPay has a good story to tell, a better future to share and the know-how to make it happen. If you are into how to make it happen, follow our blog for more technical and exciting articles to come, and yes they can be both. Stay curious!
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