BrazilBlockchain consultant heads up Government Blockchain Association in Zimbabwe
The founder of Genesis Block Africa Jonathan Fenell has added another item to the list of his blockchain efforts across Zimbabwe, this time with the establishment of the Government Blockchain Association. Fenell will leverage his professional experience to serve as president of the association.
Jonathan Fenell’s professional experience spans a broad range of backgrounds, from trade & retail to hospitality, real estate and travel, among several others. As an avenue of financial stability, Fenell has founded a number of firms in a variety of sectors, made them operational, and subsequently exited for a fee that he would invest further.
Last year, Fenell entered the highly relevant domain of blockchain technology, through the establishment of Genesis Block Africa (GBA) – a blockchain consulting firm based in Harare, Zimbabwe. The firm offers general support in the distributed ledger technology domain, and focuses on the African market only, despite having professionals in the UK and Italy as well.
Other services offered by the firm include hyper-ledger fabric support, venture capital consulting, initial coin offerings, and an expertise in the Fintech domain. Using the expertise and experience gathered over the last year, Fenell will now serve as the President of the newly established Government Blockchain Association (GovBA) in Zimbabwe.
GovBA is based in the US, and is a non-profit organisation with a focus on Zimbabwe. The association is organised around membership, wherein individuals and institutions looking to promote the usage of blockhain across Africa – a market where international players are swooping in to implement the distributed ledger technology.
Explaining the functions served by GovBA, Fenell comments, “There are many organisations out there who will already be approaching the government claiming to have the best solutions but actually do not, Eg: I would state that building a digital currency on Ethereum is not currently viable and am more biased towards Eos, Hyperledger or other more centralised solutions whereas an Ethereum loyalist would debate this, offer a solution to Gvt, be awarded the project and it fails.”
He adds, “As we all are aware, the level of knowledge in Blockchain and related technologies is minimal in Zimbabwe and it is down to us to assist government get up to speed and therefore make informed decisions before we are all affected by a poorly made one.”
Fenell's entrepreneurial prowess will be a source of inspiration for professionals across Zimbabwe – a market where small and medium businesses are currently scouting domains that will be the most lucrative in the future.
