Absa comes onboard as co-host of Blockchain and Bitcoin Africa conference

The Blockchain and Bitcoin Africa conference on Friday announced that it had secured headline sponsorship from South African banking giant Absa, a member of Barclays.

The conference, which takes place on 3 and 4 March 2016 in Johannesburg and will focus on the opportunities and challenges that digital currencies such as bitcoin as well as blockchain technology pose to regulators, institutions, companies and individuals. It will also look at the opportunities that this technology offers in terms of innovation of financial and non-financial organisations.

“We see huge potential for financial institutions in Africa to embrace disruptive technologies like blockchain, and use them to empower individuals and improve the lives of their customers,” says Ashley Veasey, CIO for the Barclays Africa Group Limited.

Read more: Blockchain and Bitcoin Africa Conference 2016 reveals speaker list

“We are already working to build capacity, expertise and solutions in this field, for example, through our Rise innovation programme, which sponsored the blockchain Supply Chain Challenge in Africa last year.

“Barclays Africa is also the first bank in Africa to become a member of the R3 blockchain technology company consortium. We believe that this consortium, along with events such as the Blockchain & Bitcoin Africa Conference 2016, will be valuable platforms for sharing some of the insights and projects we are driving in this space.”

Among the speakers at the conference are technology entrepreneur, VC, and Dragons’ Den investor Vinny Lingham; Federal Prosecutor at the United State’s Attorney’s Office William Frentzen; co-founder and CEO of BitX Marcus Swanepoel; and Verengai Mabika who is the lead business developer at BitFinance.