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Blockchain technology could be particularly beneficial for women, says WTO director general
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director general of the World Commerce Group and former international and finance minister of Nigeria, mentioned blockchain technology could assist empower unbanked and underbanked girls world wide.
Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Kristina Cornèr addressed the G20 Excessive Stage Impartial Panel on Financing the World Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response right now, asking regulators and lawmakers how blockchain technology could assist promote monetary inclusion for girls within the time of COVID-19 and past. Okonjo-Iweala, a co-chair on the panel, was the one one out of a number of members together with representatives from the US and Singapore to talk on girls in blockchain.
“Of course blockchain is something that brings more transparency in the way that business is done and removes intermediaries,” mentioned the WTO director-general. “I think that particularly in the finance area the ability to introduce this into transactions, I think could be particularly beneficial to women who are often excluded from access to finance. I think this is a good thing, something we should look into.”
Picture courtesy of Kristina Cornèr
Girls in lots of nations have typically had extra bother accessing monetary providers than males, a state of affairs that could have been exacerbated by the pandemic with many establishments closed. Many specialists have proposed utilizing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to advertise monetary inclusion in areas missing the identical infrastructure as developed nations, particularly the place girls might face lengthy journey instances to entry credit score suppliers and restrictions on opening financial institution accounts, and generally not even being allowed to legally personal property.
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In keeping with a World Financial Discussion board report launched in April, girls are additionally nonetheless underrepresented working within the blockchain and crypto business. The World Commerce Group has beforehand reported girls’s financial empowerment is a part of its agenda within the creation of wealth and decreasing poverty, with the group suggesting digital options:
“E-commerce conducted through online platforms can be an easy and inexpensive way for women to trade globally, to enter new foreign markets, to expand their businesses and to harness their entrepreneurship.”
Crypto and blockchain could be a probable extension of this view, utilizing digital currencies as a way of cost and blockchain for banking and extra. Nonetheless, it’s unclear how particular person economies will reply as some developed nations reopen amid excessive vaccination charges whereas others stay partially or totally closed.
