Digital Economy. Cameroon Enhances Blockchain Technology for Economic Transformation

An international conference opened on August 22 in Yaounde under the patronage of the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. The government of President Paul Biya has put in place a strategic plan to transform Cameroon’s digital economy by 2020 and create 50,000 jobs.

Shawn Nathan EPANG

The impact of Blockchain technology on the emergence of Cameroon comes under scrutiny today August 22 during the first edition of Cameroon Blockchain Conference at the Yaounde Conference Centre. The event that groups together over 100 participants including policy makers, governments, business and academia from around the world, was placed under the patronage of the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. According to the main organizer of the conference, Armand Gaetan Ngueti, it is the largest Blockchain event in Central Africa and it involves the Government Blockchain Association (GBA) as well as the Blockchain association of Cameroon. The conference featured amongst others, keynote presentations and panel discussions from some 15 panelists will focus on the theme “The role of blockchain technology in Cameroon’s transformation.”

Ngueti explained that the Cameroon blockchain conference aims to bring key stakeholders together including governments, private entities, public and para-public enterprises, professionals as well as specialized organizations to share knowledge and information on how the technology can contribute in fostering Cameroon’s emergence. “The conference comes to educate people on the blockchain and its implication at the State level, companies already operating the technology to share their experiences on how they started and how they are making money using the blockchain and most importantly how they can inspire others on the use of the technology,” Ngueti told Cameroon Business Today. He added that it is a platform to interact and share ideas on establishing a national taskforce on vulgarizing the blockchain philosophy and connect with people making great strides in their countries.

Just a few enterprises are already using the technology in Cameroon with about 10 of those enterprises especially in the financial sector to take part in the conference. The blockchain, he said, is the standard as far as innovation is concerned with state of the art security mechanism. The technology can be used to build all kinds of services in all sectors of activities ranging from financial (banking, bitcoin, cryptocurrency), agriculture, land transactions to public service.

As concerns its role in enhancing Cameroon’s economic transformation, Ngueti stated that blockchain will help redefine the way the country can add value to its digital economy. By revolutionizing fundraising mechanisms, startups can use the technology to easily raise funds for their projects. Also, being of public standard, anyone can build solutions on blockchain. Thus, with the digital economy, many Cameroonians can develop solutions to worldwide problems and earn money from big companies,” he noted.