“The success of Africa will not be determined by the success of her corporations, but rather by the success of her communities”
Africa is a continent that has garnered a lot of attention and found itself in the blockchain spotlight. With a strong case for utility across a wide range of applications, the emerging market has seen increased popularity from international companies and local startups alike. The general consensus is not about using blockchain to do a patch job on the continent, and provide a quick fix, but by giving many African countries a real chance to fully embrace blockchain technology, to a degree even more so than their first-world counterparts – with a real opportunity to become world leaders in this new space.
With centralised banking in Africa being unreliable and in some cases, near non-existent, there is a great need for payment solutions that not only are trusted by the general population but also offer ease of use. This is where blockchain offers a low-cost, swift solution, negating expensive remittance fees and allowing money to change hands quickly, securely and with a level of transparency that the current system lacks.
With over 16 million mobile payments taking place daily on one payment platform in Kenya alone, East Africa is already cementing itself as the lead in mobile money payments, not only within the continent but on a global stage. Amongst the most goods and services purchased, is mobile airtime – with contracts being expensive, people find themselves topping-up daily. However, blockchain aims to not only make these payments easier but also cost-efficient.
This is especially prevalent in both developing and rural areas in Africa which lack access to financial services and institutions. This is an area in which blockchain payments really flourish, opening doors to the innovative solutions offered, such as Kinesis. Kinesis aims to not only be able to positively empower people through their ability to handle money with ease but also to contribute to socio-economic development, which is especially relevant across the African continent.
By being able to give users the freedom to transact across borders, and rely on a stable currency backed 1:1 on allocated gold and silver, Kinesis’ goals to restore confidence in personal economic wealth is further bolstered by its unique yields; allowing you to receive a proportionate return from its overall fee pool.
Introducing two key advisors for the East and West African regions
We’re pleased to announce Kinesis is expanding into Africa to provide payment solutions for the vast unbanked and underbanked population.
CEO, Thomas Coughlin and CMO, Jai Bifulco will be touring the African subcontinent with back-to-back events scheduled.
The first stop will be in Kenya, Nairobi for the CIO East African Fintech Summit on May 22nd 2019. Mr. Bifulco will be contributing as a panellist and discuss the tokenisation of precious metals through progressive blockchain technology and how this can benefit the region.
Following this event, the pair will be off to Lagos, Nigeria for the 2019 Blockchain, AI and Digital Assets Summit commencing on the 23rd of May 2019 where they are both scheduled to speak in an effort to encourage policymakers and government officials to see the huge potential Kinesis can offer.
In addition to these events, there are a series of meetings with potential investors, government organisations and regulatory bodies to begin discussions around partnership and collaboration opportunities.
In line with this recent development in Africa, Kinesis is proud to announce the appointment of two new advisors from the region:
Chimezie Chuta
Chimezie Chuta is the Founder of Blockchain Nigeria User Group, Africa Lead, Technology & Innovation at Blockspace Africa Technologies and CEO of both Techbuild Innovation Partners and Lagos DrupalVersity.
With his involvement as a community lead organizer, he is involved in a number of industry-government projects working towards technology innovation. This includes being a member of Nigeria Capital Market, a roadmap Fintech Committee set up by SEC Nigeria. Member of Government Blockchain Association (GBA), member Blockchain Group, Africa Progress Group (APG), member Fintech Association of Nigeria.
Chimezie is a regular speaker at various blockchain, cryptocurrency and technology conferences both locally and internationally. As a Certified Technology Innovation Expert, he plays a key role in organizing Nigeria’s biggest Blockchain and Cryptocurrency events and his opinions are highly respected within the region.
His appointment as an advisor is significant as he assists in bridging the gap between Kinesis and the African community and guiding the progression.
Ali Hussein Kassim
Ali is the CEO of FinteXX Technology Ltd, a Pan-African Fintech company that enables the financial ecosystem to utilize digital technologies towards enhancing efficiency, bring innovative financial solutions to the unbanked across the continent and create awareness towards the transformative nature of Financial Technologies.
He is also Co-Founder of Demo Ventures, an early stage, smart capital fund, currently raising its inaugural fund, focused on digital innovation and digital transformation in selected sectors in Africa.
In addition to this, Ali also is the principal of, AHK & Associates, a Digital Transformation Consultancy focused on enabling clients to leverage Digital Technologies to achieve Transformational Change in their organizations.
His advisory experience and knowledge will be key for Kinesis expansion and initiation in the pan-African unbanked and underbanked populations to provide a suitable currency that is widely accepted.
We are pleased to welcome both Chimezie and Ali to the Advisory Board as they will make great additions to the team.
To see more details about our advisors, please visit the team section of our website.
