Blockchain Roundtable

On June 14th, 2024, the Center for Law and Innovation at Certa Foundation hosted a Roundtable Discussion on Blockchain Technology, featuring five experienced panelists from across Africa, who seamlessly engaged in an open discussion with law and tech experts from both private and public institutions. The theme of the discussion was "Harnessing Blockchain for Economic Growth in Africa." The purpose of this event was to build clarity around blockchain technology, with the ultimate goal of creating a blockchain briefing note and practical recommendations for the African State Government and industry stakeholders.

Blockchain is a decentralized, digital ledger (technically a database) that records transactions across a secure and transparent network of computers. The roundtable evolved around several points, including the use of blockchain to manage sustainable resource management, access to justice through blockchain-enhanced community participation with blockchain, and the need for interoperability and scalability among blockchain platforms, and the potential of integrating blockchain in sectors other than the financial sector/payment sector.

After the insightful conversations on the above-mentioned concerns, the panelists came up with practical recommendations for industry stakeholders and Africans as whole. Key recommendations include adopting a crypto-economy in Africa and ensuring that young people’s talents and skills are recognized, carrying out further research on various protocols on blockchain according to areas of use, understanding the economic perspectives of tokens, ensuring government policies with regard to blockchain technology fundings, education, and training. The Center for Law and Innovation team will prepare a policy brief as an output following this conversation. 

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