African Union ECOSOC Signs MoU with Futira to Provide Blockchain Ecosystem and Trading Platform

Futira Ltd LLC, referred to as Futira, today has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Union, Economic, Social, and Cultural Council  (ECOSOC) to provide a blockchain ecosystem and trading platform for member countries to intra-trade.

The African Union is a union of 55 member countries in Africa, and the African Union ECOSOC is the arm within the African Union mandated to establish a single market to enable free trade within member countries.

Futira is represented by Dr. Hatim Zaghloul, which aims to raise funding through a crypto coin launch, Futira Coin, to fund investments in Inovatian Group that will provide telecommunications and internet connections to remote and low connected areas, and countries with low mobile telecommunications and internet availability. 

Futira and Inovatian are founded by Dr. Hatim Zaghloul, one of the leading minds in the telecommunications industry and academics, who is at the forefront of developing today’s communication technology in collaboration with Dr. Michel Fattouche. In 1992 and 1995, he invented together with Dr. Michel Fattouche WOFDM and MCDSSS respectively, the basis for many wireless communications standards including the WiMAX and LTE standards.

Towards One African Market

One of the main aims of the African Union ECOSOC, the Peace and Security Cluster of the Economic, Social, and Cultural Counsel of the African Union is to enable free trade between member countries and to establish a single market. 

Similar to the single market of the European Union, the aim of the African Union ECOSOC is to deepen the economic integration of the continent and allow free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market.

African nations however have diverse cultures, ethnicities, religions, languages, and laws that make this aim of a single market a Herculean task. Furthermore, many member countries are low-income countries, with low telecommunications and internet availability to their population, making this more difficult to achieve. 

With the MoU signed by Futira with the African Union ECOSOC is multifaceted, Futira aims to build a blockchain ecosystem for an online trading platform for the African Union intra-trade between member countries to enable the continent’s aim of free trade between its member countries. Futira will also provide advisory services to member countries on blockchain security issues. 

According to Statisa.com, The number of B2B cross-border transactions finalized on blockchain worldwide is expected to increase dramatically over the next years. By 2025, the number of B2B cross-border transactions on the blockchain will reach 745 million.

“We give thanks to the African Union for giving Futira the opportunity to work together as partners to help build the future for the people of Africa to make Africa a leading continent in crypto . This is a defining moment for Futira,” said Dr. Hatem Zaghloul, the Founder and CEO of Futira Ltd LLC, “we are pleased that our hard work to help Africa take a leadership position in technology has been noticed by the African Union. We are grateful to the African Union for this and will start immediately working harder to make Africa a leading hub for Blockchain and cryptocurrency.”

Bridging the Digital Divide

With the world becoming more reliant on the internet and mobile telecommunications, those without access would be left behind economically and socially. Africa has the lowest global internet penetration rate of only 43.2%, compared to other regions around the world, the second-lowest being Asia at 63.8% penetration rate (source: Internet World Stats, 2021). 

Enabling people in unconnected or remote areas access to telecommunication and the internet would also open up their ability to access markets beyond their locality. Empowering these populations with mobile telecommunications and internet access would lead to improving their countries’ gross national income. 

Unlike the traditional mobile operators that rely on a central office that routes the calls or the internet packets which makes it expensive for low-density areas or remote areas, 

Innovation Group aims to do this by introducing low-cost mobile operator services using technologies that are at a low cost through a combination of its proprietary wifi mesh network, InoMesh, which acts as the wifi routers controlled by its proprietary blockchain technology, InoChain.  

Its blockchain computer connects to the global internet via a satellite or the closest network tower. InoMesh is suitable for implementation in malls, compounds, university campuses, temporary sites, in rural and remote areas. 

Futira Coin, More Than Just CryptoCurrency

What distinguishes the Futira coin from other digital assets is that it serves as a vital and humanitarian project managed by well-known businessmen and investors, 

The blockchain technology used by Futira is a private and permission-based blockchain.  What this means is that it will not be anonymous thus Futira can be said to be the crypto-coin that not only gives social impact but can also combat money laundering. 

The funds raised will be invested in building fourth-generation communication networks with the aim of providing Internet service in unconnected areas in Africa. More than half of the population of Africa does not have the opportunity to connect to the Internet because of the high cost of the necessary infrastructure

African countries,  in general, are in need of money transfer mechanisms, especially in terms of remote payment mechanisms. This is a big market given that Africa has over 1.2 billion people.

Utilizing the blockchain offers a unique opportunity by allowing the use of a cryptocurrency, Futira Coin, to be used for buying credits on the telecommunications network. 

Telecommunications network users will pay in fiat currencies and have the remaining credit in Futira Coins stored in their network credit wallet. The network user will be guaranteed that if his credit drops below what he paid in his fiat currency, he will get the value of the credit he paid. If the credit increases, he can use the extra credit he gained. 

Futira Coin is unique as its one of the few cryptocurrencies backed by a real-world commercial business, a telecommunications network operator business. The Futira Coin launch will act as the means of funding for the telecommunications network. For investors, this means that Futira Coin’s value will be based on the value of the network business and the Coin should increase in price because of increasing demand for the telecommunications service and fiat currency inflation.

Their first telecommunications operations business will commence in African countries, in Chad and in Niger, expected to be by the middle of this year.