Today, Japanese company Soramitsu announced a strategic partnership with the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), a government-funded research organization and think tank. The collaboration aims to foster blockchain technology research and develop skills and applications in Nigeria.
Soramitsu is best known as the developer of Bakong, Cambodia’s digital currency payment network with ten million wallets across a population of 17 million. He has assisted other governments with central bank digital currency (CBDC) and other research, including in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The aim is to combine NISER’s local knowledge with Soramitsu’s deep expertise in blockchain. In terms of technologies, this means the central bank digital currency, SORA and Hyperledger Iroha. In addition, they will also explore and implement applications to improve financial inclusion and meet Nigeria’s economic development goals.
Nigeria launched its eNaira CBDC in late 2021, but like other CBDCs, it has not been a massive success. Eighteen months ago, a report indicated that the central bank had started exploring alternatives to its initial technology provider Bitt, which also serves other central banks, including those in the Eastern Caribbean.
While the Bakong project uses the permissioned Hyperledger Iroha blockchain, what’s new in the NISER collaboration is the inclusion of SORA, a public blockchain or parachain that is part of the Polkadot network. It was founded by Soramitsu and is run by a DAO with its own governance token XOR. In the Solomon Islands CBDC proof of concept for Bokolo Cash, the CBDC was issued on the permissioned Hyperledger Iroha blockchain, but there was also an integration with SORA to use the CBDC to “simulate” cross-border payments.
Other central banks have started exploring public DLT integration. Ghana recently hosted a hackathon involving Hedera DLT.
