Frustrated with the problem of fraud in charities where money donated was used for purposes other than the reason they were given, and having had his own personal experiences, the CEO of the medical project, Joseph Thompson decided to employ the Blockchain technology for getting aid across to the those who need them, specifically pregnant moms.

Giving each of the participants a digital ID, the project tracks the mom from registration to hospital appointments and birth. Through the Blockchain technology, they make sure that each pregnant woman is able to get the drugs, as well as the medical appointments they need without any stories or delays.

With its unique characteristics of being a decentralized custodian of information, with each information having its unique identifying code called a hash which prevents mix-up of details; and its public database which is accessible to everyone but is protected to avoid hackers, Blockchain has been hailed as the most secure and transparent database ever.

Can Blockchain be used to check corruption in Africa?

Definitely.

One of the reasons why public projects are executed shabbily is because sometimes, the contractors steal the funds allocated to them. If African countries were to employ the Blockchain technology, it would be easier to track what exactly the contractors are using the money given for. It would also track their progress, exposing them if work is not going as it should.

Funds collected by the government and how they use it would be in a public database, and it would be hard for public officials to lie about where they went. All the ridiculous stories of animals swallowing money we heard in Nigeria last year would never have been told if Blockchain was integrated into the government’s system.

Having information about how much the government has and what it is using the money to do makes it more accountable to the people. Corruption is reduced drastically and the lives of the citizens would improve as was the case with the Tanzanian mum and other mothers who gave birth under the project.

False information like ghost workers in the civil service would be easily detected by the Blockchain technology and would be weeded out, reducing government expenditure in this sector.
Read full article: https://qwenu.com/2019/03/01/can-blockchain-be-used-to-check-corruption-in-africa/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUKalKHGXWQ

Blockchain to curb corruption in Nigeria

Nigeria: customs buys into blockchain to curb corruption

With its Excise Trade Automation fully on blockchain, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) could experience a 50% growth in revenue to add to its current US$280 million accrued monthly said Aber Benjamin, Assistant Comptroller General (Modernisation).

Benjamin said the target is realistic and the state organisation is busy with a pilot of Oracle's Blockchain Cloud Service to manage business processes and procedures to improve transparency, root out corruption and increase revenue.

"Yes, it is feasible because the current Excise and Free Trade Zones business processes and procedures are not automated and as such there exist opportunity for corruption with resultant revenue leakages," he said.

"But with full automation leveraging on Oracle Blockchain technology, these gaps will no longer exist and transparency with predictive business environment will surely bring about increase in revenue we have experience in other areas of the service."

The NCS intends to use Blockchain to document and track products manufactured locally, from the source of licensing and permits to distribution and Points of Sale (PoS).

"NCS chose to embrace blockchain technology which is different from the adoption of cryptocurrency because we believe blockchain will help drive transparency and trust in our excise trade by providing irrefutable data on goods manufactured in Nigeria," said Benjamin. "It will also drive investment in goods manufactured in Nigeria because trusted information on all products will be available on the platform."

Adopting blockchain is widely considered 'new territory' for many Africans. Recently in Tanzania, collaboration between Irish AID:Tech and Dutch PharmAccess saw a women's aid project in Tanzania record the birth of a baby on blockchain - a world first.

"I see a fast adoption of blockchain in Nigeria as this will drastically promote Nigeria's ease of doing business and bring about trust in the different systems such as trade, finance, oil supply etc.," Benjamin noted. "Already with Customs' migration to blockchain, this will automatically require that all organisations that deal with Customs such as the banks, government agencies and so on join the Customs blockchain network."