How Blockchain is Finally Getting Africa on the Grid
20 Mai 2022 - 02:11PM
NEWSBTC
Parents lining up to pay school fees in cash, lenders charging
extortionate rates, and cash savings held under mattresses—these
are some of the things residents in Africa have had to resort to
due to financial technology not having yet fully expanded in the
developing continent. According to Statista, only 48 percent of the
African population has access to banking services in 2022. Accounts
being the first point of entry into the formal financial system
puts its citizens at an enormous setback as they are forced to turn
to transactions that are not only inconvenient and wasteful but
often risky too. Having access to a financial account instead of
just cash allows users to take control of their finances by
offering ways to manage money. By utilizing accounts instead of
cash, both governments and businesses can help bring tens of
millions of adults into the digitized financial system. According
to a report from the World Bank, digitizing payments for
agricultural goods alone would cut the number of unbanked goods by
approximately 125 million, including 16 million in Nigeria. In
Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, over 10% of adults still receive
agricultural payments. A policy note on mobile money from the
Global Findex team found huge financial potential for Sub-Saharan
Africa. Specifically, it found that regionally, 350 million adults
lack an account but 155 million said they have their own mobile
phone, while 200 million said they have access to one at home. Most
are located in West Africa, where mobile money has yet to take off,
but 40 million live in East Africa, which has one of the world’s
highest mobile money account ownership rates. Banking the Unbanked
In addition to African citizens’ limited access to their financial
crisis, an estimated 494 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have
no form of legal identification. This lack of connectivity not only
means that the unconnected are unable to communicate with anyone
outside of their vicinity, but it also contributes to poor
healthcare, a low standard of education, and poverty in general. In
response, officials in the continent are starting to turn to a
particular digital technology with transformative potential—the
blockchain. By harnessing the power of the decentralized
blockchains, the metaverse can give African citizens access to both
finances and identifications through biometric digital
identification (ID) systems. One company in particular, which
believes that access to the internet is a human right, World
Mobile, is doing exactly this. Taking inspiration from pioneers
throughout history, the company’s core mission is to lead a global
movement toward digital inclusion. It plans on accomplishing this
by deploying a dynamic hybrid mobile network consisting of aerial
and ground assets, to connect the unconnected and bank the
unbanked. “Half the world is still unconnected. The world of
telecommunications needs rebooting. Traditional networks with
legacy systems and archaic business models are doing nothing to
tackle the problem,” the company states on its website. The Future
of Mobile Networks Currently rolling out its technology across
Africa and the world, World Mobile’s hybrid network strives to
connect those that traditional networks have left offline. “With
access to the internet, subscribers will gain a self-sovereign
identity and all of the opportunities that connectivity offers,
from digital currencies to education and more” the company states.
Not only will subscribers in Africa have access to the internet,
but it will also be affordable, fair, and sustainable. Its
self-governed and decentralized technology will allow users to
connect without jeopardizing their privacy. Subscribers can own
their own data and have their own identity so they can access
services they were previously excluded from like banking,
insurance, borrowing, and saving. In 2022, Africa is still
drastically behind the developing world in its access to financial
technology. Thanks to the emergence of blockchain technology,
companies like World Mobile are pioneering platforms that are
liberating African citizens’ access to financial technology through
access to affordable, fair, and sustainable services. It won’t be
long before the developing continent joins the rest of the world on
the path to financial freedom.
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