Blockchain Industrial Revolution in Africa
(I)
Blockchain would have been enough as an angel for me even if it was just about the cryptocurrencies which were the first major boom or exposure it had. Today, the technology is expanding to areas such as music, art, health care, supply chain, energy, telecommunication, voting among others. A whole lot of transformation will be witnessed in several African industries if the adoption of blockchain technology can be encouraged within these organizations. As a means to promote such, let’s take a look at the top 100+ Giant companies in Africa with regards to the revenue in 2018 and see how blockchain can help each industry or company perform better in 2019/20.
I’m a huge fan of blockchain, so I guess it will only be fair to state two important things before we dive right in. One, I will only patronize companies that have integrated the blockchain technology into their operations by 2020. This is due to no other reason other than it allows transparency and helps new startups climb easily by giving access to financial data research, an important part of any startup success. Two; Adoption of the technology is a beauty when most companies makes use of the same platform. I once read about a serial entrepreneur who had an idea of developing the Amazon of Africa and got into trouble. I never really read the details, but I think a version of his idea may have sounded like this. Convergence of several businesses made available on the same online platform.
Sonatrach
Let’s start with Sonatrach. Sonatrach is the largest Algerian and African company and the 11th largest oil consortium in the world. The company employed 120,000 workers and produces hundreds of millions in tonnes of oil equivalents which is quite a lot of things to manage. With experience dating back to several decades, they are always highly considered in the industry. A few days ago, they signed a one billion dollars contract with India’s Larsen and Toubro to build plants to produce 11 million cubic meters of gas per day. Another of the recent contracts will also be the one signed with the Chinese giants to the tune of 445 million dollars.
As sweet as most stories and news are with the desperation to cover the sad side truth, not all that glitters truly glitters. Considering the political turmoil suffered for decades and the lack of bright Algerian future among others, the oil and gas sector which seems to be the last hope may not even be a lasting hope. But to fully diversify into the future, it needs to be fully tapped into to raise as much funds as required. This was one of the major reasons Sonatrach came with a reform strategy of facilitating foreign involvement among other methods which although at current state depletes the oil reserves in 32 years but expected to grant the wishes.
I’m not a fan of what really happens within most organizations but it’s obvious to all that we often always have a mole and some shady deals by some with the will and determination to claim more than they deserve or earn. What ends up being claimed usually is always the livelihood of a percentage of the national population. This is always made possible by the lack of publicly verifiable records which is a way to carry out the illicit deals miles away from the censoring eyes. I once pitched an idea to an audience in an oil-rich city in Nigeria about the possibility of building a refinery using the Ardor blockchain platform.
Idea 1:
Majority of ideas comes from asking the question of what if? If this could happen, what if I change some variables, what if I can do this or that? Always the question that gets asked first before the idea becomes unveiled. The idea here was to see if the millions of people across the nation whom singlehandedly like most billionaires couldn’t construct a refinery but can do so possibly by combining effort. Of course, this is highly possible when using the blockchain technology. What needs to be done?
We envisaged from available data that it will take approximately 5 billion USD to construct a fully functional large size refinery. Also at full capacity in further estimates, the payback period will be 5 years. Taking construction time according to the data sheet to be 5 years, it means a new refinery can be constructed every 10 years by simply reintroducing the funds from the first fundraising into the system and each investor gets richer every 10 years with shares he/she have the liberty to sell anytime. This long shot is possible on the blockchain by first having a crowd funding (ICO) to gather the required funds to proceed.
Considering the fact that a whole lot of people will be involved, and hence to gain trust which will be another level or layer of trust implemented by the blockchain, they will need a way to personally monitor all the affairs other than the reports presented by the board or trustees. Here we considered the tendency of using integrated sensors which broadcasts required information when triggered that is needed to compute an array of data and give required results. Sensors that will monitor in real time data such as weight, level in cubic meters, time among other measurable details to determine how much in volume is refined, processed, transported and so on as the case may be without necessarily needing a manual monitoring or the use of a third party. And to crown the idea, all information will be made available on the blockchain in an instant after collection.
With Sonatrach, it can extend way beyond this but then we will be discussing several ideas in one. We will make reference to this later on in subsequent paragraphs. The point here is, Blockchain being a trust-based platform can always be enhanced with the use of external factors/equipments combined for the same purpose. This company of course has done so great over the years, but can do much better with the blockchain by delivering efficiently and transparently.
Steinhoff International Holdings
Steinhoff proud itself as a global retailer with various brands in several countries adding value to its customer’s lifestyle by providing at their convenience, everyday products at affordable rates. Quite an achievement considering their existence for over 50 years, having approximately 12000 retail outlets, 26 manufacturing facilities, 150,000 containers shipped annually and having approximately 130,000 employees. Experience and Innovations are two important features in industrial management that will of course present quite some difficulty when instructed to choose one and not both. Both are extremely important and will be difficult for any company to thrive without possessing both. Steinhoff international Holdings possesses the decades of experience, and no doubt their diversity into several fields is a show of their innovations which makes them perfect for blockchain adoption.
Most people are already aware of the supply chain blockchain use case. Well, not everyone is well informed about it. Steinhoff International Holdings made it a major goal to focus on making shopping as easy and convenient as possible by focusing on specialty stores allowing customers to shop in-store or online with goods delivered straight to their home. Prior to these amazing shopping experiences, with a solid foundation, they were able to fully establish their supply chain to ensure the continuous support of the retail stores. They ensured the final products is provided at the best quality and price with several divisions ranging from managing everything from the raw material sourcing to manufacturing, shipping and delivery. This will bring up a series of ways blockchain can help enhance the transition and transparency of the whole process.
Remember the great Horse meat scandal where horse DNA was discovered in frozen beef patties in Britain and Ireland. This was a supply chain scandal in 2013 where 65 people were linked to a racket selling horses unfit for human consumption which of course wasn’t detected fast enough. This is just a tip of the entire uncovered stories of supply chain scandals which could have easily been mitigated or minimized with a transparent system such as the supply chain blockchain application. No doubt we will see some new companies adopting this technology but the struggle for success will then later include the question, how transparent can you get?
Internet of Things and Blockchain today provides a unique way to enhanced transparent operations that millions of people will be able to verify activities done behind closed doors. In supply chain, it’s a well known issue for most companies when it comes to managing the information and procurements within the entire industry with limited choice to trusting their stake holders to deliver on time and as expected. This in the end when all hell breaks loose after the struck of the hidden actions, the losses aren’t only suffered by the company in millions of dollars but also the consumers in terms of deteriorating health due to consumption. This among many other reasons begs for the need for enhanced availability and transparency in supply chain information.
Idea 2
Somewhere in the northern Nigeria, a blockchain use case was once discussed and to an extent practiced. The use of enhanced tagging to monitor animals to collect various information such as location and health status of the animals which in broad explanation puts together two technologies. The use of Blockchain to record the transmitted information with regards to the last known location and health status and Internet of Things to broadcast these information to the appropriate devices, blockchain inclusive. This whole setup is able to monitor the exact location of these cattle if they are in a particular radius of course with limitations considering the resources available.
Using the cattle as the basic raw material for production in any company, with the available blockchain technology and internet of things, I am able to derive all relevant information to determine the status of the material upon arrival which indirectly determines the value of the products upon finishing. How long it takes for raw materials to arrive and under what conditions they were transported. How long the raw materials stay in the factory before they were utilized. How long these finished products took in transit and under the very conditions they were transported and finally how long they sat in the stores before getting picked up by the final consumers. All these are recorded and can be made available publicly for all to see. If utilized very well, two identical products depending on the available data on each can be ascribed with different values in price. It’s a question of “How transparent can we get?”
These available information makes it the responsibilities of the farmer to ensure the animals were well fed and taken care of, transported fast and adequately to the factory to get a deserving payment for his goods. And henceforth ensures the responsibility to process under good condition and perfect timing to finishing and set for transporting to stores is adequately carried out by the company to maximize profit and so on. Moreso, with a more extensive research and data collection, the amount of raw material required to produce a quality amount of final goods can be determined. This makes it easy to determine if materials are underutilized, over utilized or some unrecorded materials such as horses are added to boost production output covering the input reduction or manipulation.
Expertise in Blockchain programming, development and even understanding isn’t a must for everyone. It’s a time consuming field especially for those who aren’t familiar with coding from the onset. This isn’t an issue of course with the Ardor platform as the sole purpose of developing this blockchain platform is to cater for all, both experts and novice in the field to adopt the technology and have it implemented and ready for use in few minutes.
Further reading:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1136599.shtml
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Why-Algerias-Oil-Sector-Isnt-Booming.html
