Nigeria’s government and citizens are keen to integrate blockchain and other new technologies into their daily lives, but more needs to be done to educate people about its value, says Dr Rislan A. Kanya, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of IT Research and Innovation at Baze University.
Kanya noted that few of his colleagues have a full understanding of blockchain technology and that it typically takes a long time for new ideas to be fully accepted in academia.
‘Academia is a very serious ecosystem and it takes time before we adopt and start embracing new things,’ he said. ‘So I asked a few colleagues, “Do you know anything about blockchain?” Yes, they know, but they think it is all about crypto. So the literature is there in academia, but the application is not well known beyond just cryptocurrency.’
Kanya said that this is slowly changing as businesses and the government begin adopting the technology in earnest.
Integrating BSV blockchain into the education system
To help improve the adoption of blockchain and other emerging technologies in university and school curriculums, more must be done to upskill the staff and lecturers, said Kanya.
‘One of the initiatives we are doing at the university is to see how we can rejig our curriculum. We talk about blockchain in theory, but we need to see applications coming from our classrooms and this is one of the key agendas we have in this partnership with Domineum.’
‘The lecturers are undergoing training on blockchain and its applications, and we are also working towards pushing this education to our students.’
This combined with updated curriculums which feature blockchain prominently will greatly help with adoption, Kanya said.
BSV blockchain education already underway
Kanya said the adoption of blockchain at an enterprise level has also led to more willingness to include blockchain-related materials directly into the curriculum.
‘What we found is the curriculum is very open for innovation and we just have to integrate this education into what we are doing. Then number two, we are looking at how we can support the government to build manpower and support regulation and (blockchain) operationalisation.’
Kanya said the university is looking at several specific use cases for BSV and blockchain technology right now in a partnership with Domineum.
‘We just launched an $80 million teaching hospital with a 300-bed capacity. How do we integrate blockchain into medical education and medical practice?’
‘We are also looking at how we can support verification and authentication through blockchain, and also how we support other operations of the university to run better through the effective use of blockchain.’
Kanya added that the university was looking at other ways to integrate blockchain technology if the opportunity presents itself.