Blockchain for Africa: Why we should care - Amarachi Amaechi

good day everyone yeah my name is amarachi Ami and I'm the co-founder and CEO of bit power at bit power basically we are building the critical infrastructure to power the future of Finance on blockchain and today I'll be talking about blockchain for Africa why we should care and some of the points I'll be highlighting today because they've already told me that oh I have to keep to time so I'll just pick some certain points today that we just quickly talk about which is what is blockchain it's relevance in the African contest the opportunity blockchain present in the African contest and block some blockchain projects in Africa and why we should actually care Africa initial introduction to blockchain technology was through the cryptocurrency cryptocurrency basically was an easy sell for people who are actually looking for high yield return and wealth creation because of time I know a lot of us here actually got introduced into the crypto world or the blockchain World by buying our first you know crypto like BTC eth and the rest and actually waiting for it to actually um grow in value for us to sell so basically this was actually some of the starting points or the introduction or ways that African was actually basically introduced to C through the blockchain space but crypto alone doesn't actually scratch the surface of the potential that blockchain technology prends for Africa digital economy now let's look at this reports by chalis on Africa in June 2020 to July 2021 it states that African amassed a total of 100.5 100$ 105 billion worth of cryptocurrency which is actually done via the peer-to-peer market and this actually accounted for over 1,200% adoption rate and with that in made Africa the fastest adoption rate in the world now let's look at some of the top five African countries with the highest adoption rate we all know that Nigeria basically is the highest adoption rate with over 35% and this is actually due to a number of factors which include the high cost of Financial Bank Services you know lack of access to financial services in the rural area and growing popularity among the P2P market trading and we have Kenya with about 25% we have South Africa with about 20% we have Tanzania with about 15% adoption rate and we have Ghana with about 10% yeah so I'm just trying to wrap up uh because we are out of time now Africa basically it's a land of incredible diversity Innovation and ontap potentials but yet we actually faced with a lot of challenges right and some of the challenges we actually faced with is limited access to financial services we lack at lack of identity lack of documentation and inefficient system and also infrastructure yes this challenges actually hinders Africa from reaching its full potential now let's talk about blockchain for Africa block chain right often hered as a technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin itage Litecoin and the rest of them holds a much brother promise for the African Market yeah I know a lot of people have talked about what is blockchain what is blockchain since the start of today but yeah I'll just give you a brief rundown on what's blockchain blockchain basically is a decentralized transparent and immutable digital Ledger that has the potential to transform a lot of industry or sector in Africa from the health care to the supply chain to the finance to the Agriculture and many more now let's look at some of the opportunities for AF opportunities for Africa I'll just highlight there are four but I'll just talk about the first two which is financial inclusion Financial inclusion basically is actually a very critical challenge across the African continent millions of people actually lack access to basic banking system right which actually limits the ability to save to get loan to get credit and so many other and also to participate in informal economy right blockchain based Solutions can actually create identities for these people who are being Limited by allowing them to bank their Bank to Access Financial Services wherever they are now the second point or the second opportunity that blockchain presents for Africa is actually reducing remittance costs hello everyone I would love to ask a question remittance are a Lifeline for many African family true of us yeah so a significant portion of population in Africa actually rely on funds sent from abroad but however the traditional remittance system comes with a hefty cost and what are these cost this cost ranges from around 3% to around 10% in a study showed by World Bank World Bank stated that $2.4 billion was actually used as a platform fee to send $34 billion to from abroad down to Africa but using blockchain powered cryptocurrencies or payment or solution can actually drastically reduce this cost right ensuring that the hiend money that actually being sent from abroad actually gets to intended res stents so I'm going to give a scenario okay here three more minutes so I'm going to just give a scenario on this point now let's use look at this example hello everyone yeah so let's look at this scenario scenario a Mr a who is a doctor abro sends $1,000 through the traditional remittance system and let's assume because the child around three to like 10% and Mr a actually uses five a platform using 5% this means that the money that actually get to the intended recipient it's actually like 5% on the $1,000 the recipient actually get $950 because the platform has already taking $50 but utilizing blockchain P project which I'm going to list some of them after this page the cost can be drastically reduced from as low as you know 0.01 0 0.5 to 0 1% so if Mr a actually had utilized a solution that actually works or uses blockchain this means that Mr a can pay as low as 0.

5 which means that Mr a1000 or hard n1,000 era gets to his family as $995 as opposed to the 950 so using blockchain power cryptocurrencies can drastically reduce the cost ensuring that more of the Harden money sent by the loved ones which is it intended users now because of time I will just run through some of the opportunities which is digital identity land ownership now let's talk about some of the projects in Africa utilizing blockchain we have bitpesa bitpesa for example it's a blockchain based payment platform that has streamlined crossb transaction for African businesses right thereby reducing cost and improving efficiency now we have bnob bnob basically helps send help Africans businesses and individuals send and spend money abroad with E and at a reduce cost and one of the platform I was talking about you know that helps you send money across the across the globe with a reduced cost is a blockchain power product like this now we have bitp power bit power basically is building the critical infrastructure to enable businesses to build Financial inclusive services on the blockchain from wallet to custody to asset management and to terization engine we have F Bank form Bank basically lets you use a time to unram to digital money we have boundless pay boundless pay basically is your assets bank but the blockchain so boundless pay basically is a digal banking application for crossb collection payment and settlement we have verifi which is a blockchain based real estate platform we have regist which is a digital documentation um and authentication verification on blockchain now why should we actually I'm coming towards the end of my topic one is empowerment with blockchain blockchain empowers individuals and give us the control over our finances our data and our asset secondly is innovation embracing blockchain basically fils Innovation across different sector like I've mentioned earlier fex banking sectors healthare and so many others thereby stimulating economy growth and also fostering entrepreneurship the last point on why we should care is inclusivity blockchain decentralized nature ensures that even remote communities can actually participate in the global economy so I'll just end today by saying that blockchain unlock trust transparency and empowerment for African future together we hold the power to shape a brighter blockchain enable tomorrow thank you