The Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) has appointed a leading Japanese IT company, Soramitsu, as its partner to improve the blockchain technology capacity of the research staff. This collaboration seeks to build a strong knowledge foundation alongside the application of modern blockchain initiatives more in line with Nigeria’s socio-economic development objectives.
Under the partnership, Soramitsu’s primary focus will be to raise awareness of NISER staff on a number of blockchain innovations, such as SORA, CBDCs, and Hyperledger Iroha. This focus is expected to enhance the understanding of how blockchain technology can be applied to various sectors and financial systems. The partnership will therefore combine Soramitsu’s technical know-how with NISER’s research capacity to offer a type of knowledge and skills that will suit Nigeria.
The collaboration also seeks to discover and incubate new use cases for Blockchain technology. Some of these objectives include increase in the country’s financial literacy, eliminating economic losses, and improving data management. Accordingly, the partners expect advances of the blockchain implementation in terms of transparency and efficiency of the processes that are critical to the development agenda in Nigeria.
This partnership comes at a time when the Nigerian authorities are beginning to understand the opportunities of blockchain technology for digital transformation. Available reports suggest that not only is the Nigerian government actively considering the development of a national blockchain, but it is already training its citizens in AI, blockchain, and other modern technologies. Such efforts show the government’s determination to reach its goal and make Nigeria a leader in the digital age in Africa and the world over.
The partnership between NISER and Soramitsu will ensure that Nigerian policymakers acquire knowledge in order to promote good policies that will foster the positive impacts of blockchain systems. NISER aims to spread positive impacts on various industry segments, such as education, healthcare, and governance at a state and national level, based on the development of a robust conceptual framework for blockchain technology.