The Ivory Coast government, represented by the Minister of Finance and Economy Adama Koné, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Thursday with Visa, the global leader in payment technology, to digitize government and financial services. Visa is the first global payments provider to open an office in the region, working closely with local governments, financial institutions and merchants to bring the benefits of innovative electronic payments to the area, including its security, mobile and consulting capabilities. Many African countries have been boosting startups to advance financial inclusion and digital payment technologies. Last April, the National Bank of Egypt joined enterprise software firm R3's global blockchain, an initiative of over 200 financial services firms comprising of technology companies, banks, trade associations and regulators. The R3 global network started as a consortium of banks looking to use blockchain technology, recently broadening its ambitions by proposing its distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, known as Corda, used to link together a wide range of businesses.
