Strathmore University’s @ilabAfrica has partnered with Ukraine-based 482.solutions to offer training in blockchain solutions development.
The training partnership, which was made possible by the Ukraine embassy in Nairobi, seeks to equip Kenyan students with skills to put the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin into greater use.
“We are looking forward to having our first workshop in April. It will be a virtual workshop and we will have an option of making it a hybrid course for students who want to attend the course physically at the university,” said Eunice Maingi, Strathmore University IT security department project coordinator and lead of the blockchain research team at @ilabAfrica.
She spoke when the university signed a memorandum of understanding with the company.
The university is betting on the technology to create a pool of highly skilled professionals for local companies. The skills are in high demand in different industries
The technology, the university said, ” is perfect for securing information, storage and sharing” and would secure data and keep hackers at bay, making it difficult for cybercriminals to tamper with records.
“After this training, we can see our students engaging in projects that are focused on the industry.
“There are several challenges that blockchain can address like fraudulent certificates, title deeds among other key records that face major threats including tampering.
“The training will be a forum to upscale existing techies and to increase the number of professionals who can use this technology to combat the mentioned challenges,” said Richard Otolo, @iLabAfrica IT security research manager.
Blockchain technology has become crucial in the battle against counterfeiting, which has over the years become a global issue that affects a wide range of industries. Manufacturers, for example, could use the technology to help in verifying and tracking the origin and trail of goods throughout the entire supply chain, making it difficult to pass off counterfeit products as genuine ones.
“The training will offer theory and practice. The theory will be about blockchain systems in general, cryptography and bitcoin protocol while practice will be about smart contract.
“Students will have an option to choose between creating of Ethereum ERC-721 token or ‘voting smart contract’,” said 482.solutions strategic partnership manager Leonid Khatskevych.
The university said it would seek to work with the public sector to implement the technology, which could help seal loopholes that expose ministries and State agencies to the theft of public resources through fraud and corruption.
Dr Joseph Sevilla, @ilabAfrica director, said: “We are also looking at partnerships with government institutions to help them solve local problems by implementing blockchain solutions.”
Source: Business Daily Newspaper.
