The Bantu Blockchain Foundation, Saturday 21st January 2022, unveiled its Bantu Xpansion programme in the city of Lagos, Nigeria – Africa’s commercial nerve centre, signaling a landmark moment for the promotion of the blockchain ecosystem in the continent.

The Bantu Xpansion initiative, which first officially launched in Ghana, on 15th January, 2022, is an extension of the efforts put together by the Bantu Blockchain Foundation, to establish its presence across Africa, in a bid to impact the continent. Initially launched in Lagos back in December 2020, Bantu accomplished a remarkable amount of milestones accentuated by 3 major community hangouts in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt in the year 2021.

The Bantu Blockchain is a hub of several utilities to aid individuals across the blockchain system, including a BantuPay wallet, a network dashboard, a blockchain explorer (in-house search engine), a ‘laboratory’ for developers, a community forum, as well as a utility token generator.

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While these tools help the user to easily, and more effectively carry out transactions across the blockchain, the Bantu initiative is helping Africans easily understand and use the blockchain system, with its myriad possibilities in this generation of web 3.0.

Attending the event were several dignitaries as; Ernest Mbenkum (CEO/Founder of Bantu Blockchain Foundation), Victor Akoma-Philips (COO/CoFounder of Bantu Blockchain Foundation), Ada Irikefe (Senior Advisor to Bantu Blockchain Foundation), Chimezie Chuta (Founder, Blockchain Nigeria User Group), Kosemani Olami (CEO, BotMeCash), Deji Owonubi (CEO of Convexity), Abimbiola Owoeye (Country Lead at Dell Technologies, Nigeria), Anthony Shishler (Investment Director at Sage Grey Finance Limited) as well as Bantu Blockchain Foundation ambassadors and African entertainers; P-square, Yemi Alade, Grace Charis and Mr. Leo.

Speaking at the launch, the founder, Bantu Blockchain Foundation, Mr. Ernest Mbenkum, said that the overall aim of the initiative is to pilot Africa’s economic evolution.

He said, “This is the beginning of something incredible. My team members believed in the creativeness, the ideas and the non-conforming perspectives that I had for a long time. And We decided to kick off 2022 with Ghana. As you can imagine, Ghana was the first country to be crowned Independent in Africa. When you look at our logo, the Adinkra symbol shaped like an X is a Ghanaian symbol meaning Independence. And freedom comes with responsibility. And underneath that is the word Bantu. Bantu means people of humanity. So, we are empowering humanity.

“In the era of the 4th industrial revolution, Africa can no longer afford to be the last. We have come of age, we are growing exponentially. We have the largest demographic in the world. And we have the most technology literate youths in our ecosystem. No other place was better than to start this in Nigeria, and we had the launch in December 2020. We have grown by leaps and bounds. I believe very strongly that Africa is not going to be saved by politics or traditional economics; it is going to be empowered and saved by technology and entertainment. The team has been led by amazing people who have worked tirelessly for over a year.”

Blockchain is a technological innovation with a heavily decentralised format that allows one to store and manage data securely. It ensures the fidelity of data stored, without the need of a third party. They are best known for their role in the cryptoverse, helping to maintain a secure and decentralised record of transactions.

With the rate of adoption growing, Africa can benefit from the use of blockchain technology to facilitate cross-border transactions, which will help reduce the high cost of remittance payment, enable access to financial services, ensure privacy, create jobs, improve business environment and foster healthy competition, among others.

Vanguard News Nigeria