At the recently concluded Blockchain Africa Conference in Johannesburg, most speakers and experts were of the opinion that one of the remarkable impacts by cryptocurrencies and blockchain would be their role in fostering financial inclusion –and particularly that people in emerging economies will be the greatest beneficiaries of this.
It is estimated that over 2 billion adults globally are excluded from the formal economy due to the fact that they do not have access to traditional banking services. This is attributable to a number of factors such as complex banking systems and cumbersome KYC procedures, lack of trust and high transaction costs among many other things – this is where projects like Kora come in with their tailor-made solutions to help catalyze financial inclusion for the unbanked.
Kora presents itself as a project of hope for the unbanked. They have a laser focus on the over two billion people in emerging markets and developing economies who have little or no access to financial services but yet have cash or capital stashed away outside of the formal economy.
Ever since the team publicly announced the project in New York on 17th of December, 2017, it has received positive reviews with great engagement levels and acceptance from the crypto- community. Little wonder it recently closed a successful presale round which saw it raise a little over $4 million.
The Kora modus operandi presents an open access financial infrastructure with significantly low operational costs as compared to traditional financial service providers. Kora redirects the benefits and extra resources gained from reduced overheads into ensuring that financial transactions are executed at very low costs and possibly totally free of charges.
But Kora’s mission to financially include the unbanked goes beyond the regimen of just providing the informal sector with alternative financial services. Its ultimate aim is to help with a process of lifting the poor and economically marginalized out of the grips of poverty.
To begin with, the team has launched a beta program in Nigeria for over 300 farmers. Other programs in Peru and Bangladesh are successively planned for later this year. This way the team will expand its network and infrastructure across continents, tying it all together to build a global platform for low-cost financial services. Plans are also underway to launch a seed fund to back companies in these economies who will build decentralized apps on top of the Kora Network.
It is estimated that unbanked have more than 10 trillion dollars in raw liquidity tied down. Kora aims to formalize this capital and bring more liquidity onto the market. A lofty goal, but if it succeeds, the global economy is the ultimate beneficiary.
For more details, follow the Kora ICO here.