Kenyan Think Tank Proposes Crypto Solution for Small Businesses

A Kenyan government think tank has opened the door for possible crowdfunding and cryptocurrency use by its small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) sector – and says it has spoken to the country’s central bank about the issue.

Per a report in Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation, a government-appointed blockchain taskforce headed by Bitange Ndemo, formerly a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Information and Communication, says it want to create an African Digital Asset Register. The register, it says, will be used to “raise funds for nurturing small enterprises, allowing them to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).”

The media outlet quotes Ndemo as saying, “Once in place, the register will start to raise funds through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).”

The taskforce says it is also discussing the matter with the Capital Markets Authority, an independent government agency that supervises and monitors the country’s stock exchange.

Ndemo says the taskforce is advising Kenyan financial regulators, and adds, “We’ll recommend a coin, recommend a framework on funding SMEs, a legal framework and a sandbox to experiment in before it is released to the market.”

Earlier this month, Zimbabwe’s Golix exchange platform announced that it would be expanding its operations to Kenya, after raising USD 32 million in a token sale.

In January, however, Kenya’s central bank issued a stark warning about cryptocurrency investment and said it was prepared to consider placing regulations on the country’s cryptocurrency-related firms.