Sierra Leone’s President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has announced nationwide digitisation program for the country.
The initiative is a collaboration between the country’s government and blockchain systems solution provider RippleNami, along with Freetown systems integration company Data Edge Revenue. The programme seeks to leapfrog legacy ICT systems with RippleNami's proprietary technology platform in order to allow Sierra Leone to access global markets and increase its economic independence.
The collaboration’s first phase is a nationwide economic identification service. This program provides the digital credentials and collections systems to increase financial inclusion and to improve access to public and government-provided services. The implementation is underway and will roll out fourth-quarter 2017.
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Samura Kamara described the initiative as “a quantum leap towards digitising a national program, empowering Sierra Leone to obtain economic independence and aggressively compete in global markets while elevating the prosperity of its people.”
“For the first time ever, the people and organizations of Sierra Leone can leverage their individual and collective assets to fully participate in and benefit from the global economy,” said Phil Gahn, founder and chief business development officer of RippleNami. “Our partnership with Data Edge Revenue, and our experience delivering services on our platform in Sierra Leone, stand to benefit the entire region in unforeseen ways.”
RippleNami architects a blockchain data visualisation platform that enables citizens and organisations across the nation to generate, collect, analyse and transact data. Advancements in blockchain and cloud computing, as well as the country’s broad adoption of mobile lifestyles, enable Sierra Leone to bypass legacy ICT systems and make essential services affordable and quickly accessible at scale.
“We operate with a clear understanding that data is the new currency in today’s economy,” said Jaye Connolly-LaBelle, president and chief executive officer of RippleNami. “This program cost-effectively positions countries like Sierra Leone to deploy data-driven services that dramatically improve the lives of their citizens, and is easily replicable in neighbouring countries.”
The visualisation capabilities of RippleNami's platform play a central role in resource management and other planning disciplines undertaken by the government and citizens of Sierra Leone. These proprietary capabilities integrate blockchain transactions with other big data sources to help users detect patterns, identify trends and analyze gaps in ways that lead to better decisions in shorter timeframes. The program also involves a unique service deployment model leading to faster large-scale adoption of the platform enabled services.
