Rather than seeing blockchain technology as an opposition, the banking industry needs to start exploring how it can incorporate it into their operations, said Kwame A.A. Opoku, Chief Executive at Reset Global People.
Speaking at a conference organised by Republic Bank and the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) in Accra under the theme: ‘Digitisation, artificial intelligence and future of things: the impact and immense opportunities for Ghanaian businesses’, he said contrary to the perception by many that blockchain will replace banking, it offers an opportunity to make the industry more efficient.
“I believe that the technology itself has an opportunity that the banking industry can look at how to inculcate it into their operations to allow them to efficiently deliver value to the consumer,” he said.
To him, blockchain holds the promise of bringing greater efficiency and transparency to the banking industry, allowing cross-border transactions to be made in real-time and money to be exchanged at the speed with which information moves today.
More importantly, blockchain, a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system, he explained, has become essentially a digital ledger of transactions that can be duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems.
Mr. Opoku, an expert in digital transformation, trend analysis and technological evolution, added that blockchain offers amazing disruptive opportunities for different industries and individuals, hence the need for the banking industry to start exploring how
“This is not one of the technologies that the banking sector should look at as an opposition but one that they need to see as an enabler in terms of allowing transactions,” he urged, adding that it also has huge potential implications for global trade and commerce.
Globally, blockchain is revolutionising the speed and efficiency of transactions. While the application of the technology is still in the proof of concept stage, it could play a positive role in a diverse range of industries and sectors including banking, commerce, healthcare, insurance and government.
“Imagine if the whole country could log into one interface at the same time to vote? This is possible because the data is real time, it is verifiable,” he concluded.
