Atlanta-Based Kingsland Blockchain University Is Training Africans In Disruptive Tech
Atlanta-based Kingsland University School of Blockchain has partnered with a Mauritian fintech management consultancy to offer blockchain developer training courses in Mauritius.
Kingsland’s internationally-recognized blockchain developer courses will be available for full-stack software developers from early 2019. Legacy Capital, a Mauritian company, plans to offer a partial refund on the course fees, according to a press release.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 6: Rodney Sampson
A pioneering name in economic opportunity for Black tech, Rodney Sampson is the founder of HBCU@SXSW and the Atlanta-based Opportunity Hub. In this episode, Rodney discusses investing in Atlanta blockchain startups Storj and Patientory, and the importance of connecting HBCU endowments to Black tech.
The developer courses prepare software experts to build and be involved in blockchain projects across industries. Kingsland also provides training programs for executives and government officials who want to understand the critical challenges and impacts of blockchain on their organizations and regulatory frameworks.
Kingsland was founded to bring disruptive tech skills education to globally underserved regions such as Africa. A school in Mauritius will give the company a physical presence on the continent.
“I saw early on the impact blockchain could have in leveling the playing field for the downtrodden and disenfranchised,” said Jason King, co-founder of Kingsland University School of Blockchain, in a Tech Bullion interview.
The Indian Ocean island was chosen as the entry point for the university into the African market due to the country’s positive regulatory and governance track record in the blockchain space, according to Techmoran.
Mauritius is also considered a business-savvy nation that has used its geographical location and legacy as a trading way station to establish itself as an investment hub and gateway into the rest of Africa, according to CNN.
The country often places well in African rankings for competitiveness and ease of doing business due to its liberal approach to regulation and taxation, with entrepreneurs often able to complete all procedures and open a business in Mauritius within less than a day.
Legacy Capital is an established financial consulting firm and management company operating in Mauritius, and this partnership will give the business access to world-class blockchain training and expertise.
Disruptive tech solving African problems
Blockchain technology enables a continuously growing list of records to be linked and secured using cryptography, and while this tech may not be as widely adopted in Africa as it is in some other parts of the world, it is showing signs of steady growth across the continent.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest economies are leading the way with regards to blockchain hubs, which assist companies and individuals with the adoption of the new technology while providing a platform for the blockchain communities in those nations to thrive, according to Venturebeat.
The applications for blockchain tech may solve a number of economic and political issues that are currently experienced in Africa, and the continent has embraced these new technologies and the solutions that they promise to modern-day challenges.
One such example is the land ownership issue in Ghana, which is open to corruption and fraud due to the fact that verifiable ownership paperwork is not available.
Blockchain is being used to clarify the land ownership issue in the country, and the Ghanaian government has enlisted local tech startups such as BitLand to develop blockchain systems that can offer landowners the necessary paperwork that can be verified and trusted, according to Cryptoslate.
The problem has been a nightmare for the Ghanaian real-estate market, with fraud rife in the form of multiple title deeds for one piece of land.
Another West African nation has shown the value of using blockchain as a tool in politics, with Sierra Leone using blockchain technology to count votes during their parliamentary elections at the beginning of the year.
Thanks to the system, which was put in place by Swiss tech firm Agora, the crypto service allowed for a fair and transparent election, according to Quartz.
The distributed ledger technology is fast becoming the tool of governments across Africa when it comes to modern problem-solving.
Earlier this year Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta launched a blockchain and artificial intelligence task force to investigate the use of such technologies to benefit the East African country’s economy, BusinessDailyAfrica reports.
The task force is to look to ways of deploying blockchain technology in order to eliminate political corruption and over-regulation, developing a 15-year plan of action.
Thanks to the new skills that will be available via the Kingsland University School of Blockchain in Mauritius, more problem-solving can theoretically take place as software developers become equipped to build solutions that were previously not possible.