Nigeria’s energy sector needs blockchain technology to ensure transparency in electricity metering system
Justice Godfrey Okamgba is Businessamlive Reporter.
You can contact him on justice.okamgba@businessamlive.com with stories and commentary.
The adoption of blockchain technology will ensure transparency, block loopholes and ensure efficiency in the energy sector, Chuta Chimezie, country director at Paxful Inc. has said.
According to Chimezie, the current metering and payment systems which are still traditional do not guarantee transparency and accountability in the sector, adding that blockchain technology could be applied in payment, electricity distribution – metering systems.
“When there is a decentralized metering system, we can seamlessly track and trace any errors or omissions in our payment process and confirm that bills payments get to the right account destination.
“But the conventional system of paying electricity bills is very porous because the money goes to the wrong hands. Eventually, we still suffer blackouts in the country,” said Chimezie.
He said with blockchain technology, transparency, accountability, digital asset security, and seamless business transactions in the sector are guaranteed, reason being that all transactional records in blockchain are immutable as this raises the confidence level of Nigerians.
Chimezie said blockchain technology will make access to petroleum products in Nigeria affordable and seamless using its digital assets.
With blockchain it becomes easy for everyone to buy petroleum products like fuel, gas, diesel and kerosene at 10.5 per cent discount from the official pump price at their partners’ fuel and gas stations across the country, he said.
However, Chimezie alluded that blockchain is at the experimental stage, evolving to make life and some businesses transactions less stressful.
“Nigerians do not need to play the second fiddle again as we did in the first generation of internet explosion as the world goes digital. This is an opportunity for us to be among the early birds in Africa to be driven by technology as other countries in Europe, Asia and Africa are currently exploring,” he stated.