Barclays Africa unveils Supply Chain challenge initiative

Barclays Africa Group Ltd (Barclays Africa) has launched the Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge, the first of several initiatives being driven into Africa with the aims of sparking ideas to drive the digital evolution on the continent.

The announcement follows hot on the heels of the global launch of Barclays Rise Innovation programme, a global community for open innovation, designed to pioneer the future of financial services.

According to Chief Executive of Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa Stephen van Coller, traditional providers of financial services are being disrupted by new technologies, agile companies and innovative product.

"Barclays is responding by partnering and collaborating with the innovators and entrepreneurs who drive disruption," he said during the launch in Nairobi yesterday. "

The supply chain, the journey of a product from manufacturer to consumer is often disjointed and inefficient and there is currently a huge amount of interest in finding ways to increase the transparency of provenance, not least of which is the use of Blockchain technology."