By George Aine
The African Blockchain Report 2018 that was recently released by Liquid Telecom indicates that many African countries, especially Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda, have shown more interest in the use of blockchain technology.
However, the blockchain is mainly used in the banking sector.
According to the report, it is because of it being marketed as a technology of trust, and with the financial sector grappling with winning public trust, they use at blockchain could be the game-changer.
However, experts say it is time Ugandan companies adopted the technology to improve supply chain performance.
Mr. Kwame Rugunda, the president of the Blockchain Association of Uganda, says blockchain technology can increase efficiency in the logistics industry by automating the processes.
“That technology has had a profound effect on society in many areas and logistics is just one of them,” he says.
“Think about a ledger that is distributed and everyone has a copy of and everyone has a copy of and everyone has real-time visibility on to this ledger simultaneously. If we are in a supply chain of about 50 parties, any change on my portion of the ledger will simultaneously be seen by every party on the ledger,” says Mr. Rugunda.
On logistics, experts say data sharing across the supply chain could enable higher levels of transparency.
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Mr. Noah Baalessanvu, a blockchain consultant with the National Information Security Advisory Group, says employing blockchain technology can create a tamperproof system that digitalizes trade workflow and tracks shipments.
IBM estimates that the implementation of blockchain could save the logistics industry $38 billion.
A recent report published by the Harvard Business Review indicates that because of the way transactions are recorded and tracked using blockchain technology, it makes it much easier to see everything happening in real time.
The report adds that with the technology, it’s possible to monitor transactions, and the general and public distributed ledger means that you get updates and see what’s happening every step of the way.
“Because every transaction in a series is recorded on a block and across multiple copies of the ledger, it is highly transparent. Each block links to the ones before and after it, making it highly secure. The functionality is efficient and scalable to any size. Chain of command is an essential part of the supply chain, and it is built right into blockchain,” the report adds.
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