The government of Sierra Leone recently launched “Africa’s first blockchain and decentralized identity implementation” in partnership with Kiva, a US-based nonprofit microfinance fundraiser, as well as the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The national digital identity platform is powered by the Kiva Protocol, a biometric system that links a person’s thumbprint with their identity. This is the first implementation of the Kiva Protocol, and Kiva plans to expand it to additional countries in the future.
The platform in Sierra Leone, which US-based Rippleworks Fund supported with a grant of USD 5 million, is intended to address barriers to accessing financial services by providing citizens with a formal method for proving their identities, control over their credit history and access to digital financial services. Rippleworks CEO Doug Galen was quoted as saying, “Kiva’s efforts to create a digital identity, gather and store an individual’s transactional information in a secure and tamper-proof environment, provide transparency to the stored information, and create a credit history are all the benefits of blockchain technology rolled into one solution that will dramatically increase access to capital at reduced costs…”
Matthew Davie, the chief strategy officer at Kiva, said users “can walk in and, because the government has already done all this work around digital ID, they can thumbprint in and use national ID card[s]. And through Kiva Protocol’s technology, we can enable in two seconds a KYC [know-your-customer] check to happen, which would normally have taken two weeks.”
Founded in 2005, Kiva is known for its crowdfunding platform that allows users to lend money online to microfinance institutions (MFIs) to backfill loans that the MFIs have made to low-income borrowers. As of 2018, Kiva funds 3.3 million borrowers in approximately 80 countries. The NGO has total assets of USD 45.4 million.
Rippleworks was founded in 2015 to support entrepreneurs with short-term, high-impact projects. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Rippleworks supports organizations serving 216 million clients in 59 countries. Financial data on Rippleworks are not available.
UNCDF endeavors to create opportunities for poor people in developing countries and their small businesses by increasing access to microfinance and other forms of investment capital. In particular, it focuses on Africa and the poorest countries of Asia. As of 2017, UNCDF reported a total annual budget of USD 60.3 million, reaching 4.3 million clients in 39 countries.
UNDP provides expertise, training and grants to developing countries with the goals of poverty reduction, democratic governance, crisis prevention, disease control and social development. As of 2017, the total annual expenditure was USD 13 billion.
By Anna Gravois, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Devex article
https://www.devex.com/news/in-sierra-leone-new-kiva-protocol-uses-blockchain-to-benefit-unbanked-95490
Kiva homepage
https://www.kiva.org
Kiva Protocol webpage
https://pages.kiva.org/kiva-protocol-faq
Rippleworks homepage
http://www.rippleworks.org
UNCDF homepage
https://www.uncdf.org
UNDP homepage
https://www.undp.org/
Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at: https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
Similar Posts:
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: OPEC Fund Donating $1m to UNCDF to Boost Energy Access, Reduce Emissions, Starting in Madagascar, Tanzania
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: UNCDF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Launch Mobile Money Program in Ethiopia
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ILO, UNCDF to Expand PICAP Climate Microinsurance Program to 8 Pacific Countries
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Jeevan Bikas, Pula, UNCDF Partner on Index Insurance for Farmers in Nepal
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Temenos Launches Artificial Intelligence Platform for Mortgage Lenders
