University champions blockchain technology intrusion in Ghana

The Accra Technical University (ATU) has partnered the Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) to champion the education of both students and the public on blockchain technology and promote its usage in Ghana.

Blockchain is a technology of principled digital database of economic transactions with the tendency to be programmed towards recording virtually everything of value, with the aim to enhance database management.

The ATU and the THUAS on Wednesday organised mini-seminar for the student of ATU, the public and stakeholders in Accra, themed: “The Power of Blockchain,” to create adequate awareness of the need for Ghanaians to adopt the technology swiftly.

Dr Ernest Winful, the Dean of International Programmes at ATU, told the Ghana New Agency in an interview that, it had become very relevant for the University to be more practical following the passage of the Technical University 2016 (Act 922).

He said it was important that the University churned out graduates who were fit for the industry, and that goal necessitated the need to enter into a partnership and collaborate with university and relevant industry players to roll out the seminar to open up the minds of students to industrial happenings.

He said it was obvious that the business environment was changing at a fast pace and becoming more technical, hence the need to sensitise students through the training to ensure that Ghana and Africa at large was not left out on the technical evolution.

Dr Winful said the ATU observed that the blockchain technology was becoming the engine of doing business in the country and therefore the need to empower young people to investigate its dynamics and become useful to industry.

“The blockchain is coming like how the internet came and it is important to join the train to avoid any inconvenience it may cause by the blockchain technology in the future,” the Lecturer said.

The future of the collaboration with the THUAS, he said would be the linking of the Hague University with the ATU to allow for exchange programmes to permit Ghanaians to learn with the THUAS and vice versa.

Mr Rene Dondjio, a Lecturer at the THUAS said in an interview that it was time to create awareness among the citizenry especially students and young people because Europe, Asia and the Americas were far advanced in blockchain technology.

He said the blockchain was a technology that was changing lives and making things easier for families, businesses and individuals.

Mr Dondjio said blockchain had come to make life easier in the areas of banking, transportation, shopping, communication, education and many other sectors.

He said as partnership with the ATU on this agenda, the Lecturers of THUAS would in every three months, travel to Ghana for the purpose of training students and the public to better understand the new technology.

Mr Jordi Jansen, a Senior Lecturer at the THUAS and an Expert of blockchain technology, said the technology has four main branches which include the cryptographic, the theory (basically the economics), the governance and the consensus parts.

On the safety of cryptocurrencies, he said the technology allows a person to possess a key as a password, which would be known only by the holder for activities on the technology platform.

He said it was important user of the technology made known parts of their keys to about two trusted relatives for easy access to the person’s wallet once the holder was dead.