Blockchain taskforce ready with report

ICT cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru. [Photo: Courtesy]

The Kenya Blockchain taskforce has released a report that will be handed over to Information Communication and Technology cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru before releasing it to the public.

The taskforce was instituted in February and has been working on integration of artificial intelligence (AI) well as use of distributed ledger systems in the country for development.

Michael Onyango, a member of the taskforce in an address on Introduction to Blockchain Development – Anonymity and its Identity at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) said that the 192-page report has focused majorly on areas that can help boost President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda.

“As a taskforce, we had about 150 presentations and finally ended up having about 90 people who came and saw us including international presentations. We have actually asked for an appointment with the CS so we can hand over the report to him so that he can release it to the public,” held Onyango.

While announcing Dr. Bitange Ndemo as the head of the team, ICT CS Joe Mucheru said that the main aim was to establish a digital economy where there is e-services.

 “I want when people online search keywords like; entrepreneurship, venture capital funds, digital economy, e-commerce, media, logistics and distribution, jobs and employment, health and education, that Kenya is always at the top,” said Mucheru.

The 11-member taskforce headed by Bitange Ndemo had fronted the idea of the introduction and creation of digital currency by the central bank that is easy to regulate and supply.

International Monetary Fund chief, Christine Legarde during the release of ‘’Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency’’, an IMF report at the Singapore Fintech Festival urged central banks to embrace issuance of cryptocurrency.

Ms Legarde reaffirmed that cryptocurrencies were competently offering more stable, quicker and cheaper e-money.

Ms Legarde asked central banks to partner with the private sector since they could manage digital currencies much as banks currently offer cash and that digital currencies transactions were safe, immediate, cheap and semi-anonymous.