Top 10 Blockchain Use Cases & How it's Used in Africa

The blockchain is a distributed database that allows for secure, transparent, and tamper-proof transactions. It has been used in a variety of industries, from financial services to healthcare. Africa is no exception, with several companies and government agencies exploring how the Blockchain can be used to address some of the region's biggest challenges.

Some of the key features of blockchain that make it irresistible include its decentralized nature, its trustless nature, and its security features. These features make blockchain an ideal platform for a wide variety of applications, from financial transactions to secure data storage.

Blockchain also has many other advantages over traditional systems. For example, it is faster and more efficient than traditional systems, and it is resistant to data tampering and cyberattacks. Finally, blockchain is an open platform, which makes it easy to develop new applications and use them in conjunction with other technologies.

Read more about Blockchain and its associated terminologies like NFTs and Metaverse

Blockchain technology is revolutionizing the agriculture and farming sector in Africa significantly. It is being used to create a more efficient, transparent, and secure system for tracking food production.

It ensures that food is safe to eat, farmers are getting a fair price for their products and helps track the provenance of food items. Thus, ensuring that they are sourced from ethical and sustainable farms.

Blockchain could also be used to create a digital marketplace for buying and selling agricultural products. This would help to connect small-scale farmers with consumers and could potentially help to reduce food wastage.

Moreover, blockchain-based smart contracts are used to streamline the process of obtaining financing for agricultural projects and track the delivery of inputs such as seed and fertilizer.

Overall, blockchain technology has the potential to transform the agriculture and farming sector in Africa, making it more efficient, transparent, and secure. It would benefit both small-scale farmers and consumers and reduce food waste, thus ensuring that food is safe to eat.

It's already been used in a number of ways:

Case 1: BitPesa

In Kenya, BitPesa uses the technology to help farmers receive payments for their products more quickly and efficiently. This company leverages Blockchain technology to significantly reduce the cost of transactions and fees.

What makes this company unique is that the cryptocurrency is converted to local currency, which is then deposited directly into the farmers' mobile money accounts. This has helped a lot of small farmers in East Africa to get access to financing and easy payment processing.

Case 2: Binkabi

Binkabi is one of its kind in Africa. It allows farmers to tokenize their produce to help trade faster and securely. Binkabi has built a supply-chain trading and financing platform for farm commodities, allowing produce-related transactions to take place via smart contracts.

Moreover, farmers can apply for loans after tokenizing their produce (representing the value of goods via blockchain tokens) through Binkabi warehouse-receipt financing.

Perhaps the most obvious use case is in the area of medical records. A blockchain-based system provides a secure, decentralized way to store and share medical records. It could potentially help to improve the quality of care by making medical records more readily available and reducing the likelihood of errors.

Blockchain technology is also used in drug tracing and supply chain management. It is used to track the movement of drugs from manufacturer to patient. Thus, helping to ensure that patients receive the correct medications and that counterfeit drugs are not introduced into the supply chain. This improves patient safety and reduces the cost of healthcare.

Other potential applications of blockchain technology in the health sector include:

• The management of clinical trials.
• The provision of health insurance.
• And the fight against corruption.

It has already started improving the lives of millions of people with the following use-cases standing out:

Case 1: Medsaf

Medsaf is a Nigerian startup that provides genuine and authentic medications through its blockchain-powered platform. This company has developed a procurement platform designed to increase access, affordability, and quality of medicine in emerging markets. It is possible to easily purchase, manage and track the medications bought in their marketplace thereby considerably reducing counterfeit drugs.

Case 2: AfyaRekod

AfyaRekod is a Kenyan-based company that uses blockchain technology to securely collect and store accurate data from different health infrastructures. This allows patients to easily share their medical records with medical professionals. Setting up an account is quick and easy, so you can start keeping track of your medical records right away.

In Africa, blockchain is used in finance and insurance to create a more efficient and secure system for handling transactions. By using this technology, financial institutions can reduce costs and speed up transactions. This is particularly important in Africa, where many financial institutions still use paper-based systems.

It also facilitates cross-border payments, clears and settles payments, and creates a more efficient and transparent payments system. In addition, blockchain technology can be used to track the movement of funds across borders, identify fraudulent activity, and provide a secure and efficient way to send and receive payments.

Blockchain technology is thus providing African financial institutions with a much-needed boost in efficiency and security. This is benefiting both customers and businesses alike and is helping to drive economic growth in the continent.

Below are some examples of its usage:

Case 1: Central Bank Digital Currency

A central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a digital form of a country's currency that is issued by the country's central bank. CBDCs are designed to be used as a digital alternative to cash and other existing forms of payment, such as debit cards and credit cards. In Africa, CBDCs are being developed and tested in several countries, including Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya. The eNaira is the first CBDC in Africa developed by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The eNaira is used as a digital alternative to the Nigerian naira and is available for use by Nigerian citizens and businesses.

Case 2: SureRemit

SureRemit is a blockchain-based remittance platform that enables low-cost money transfers to and from Africa. The platform uses tokens that can be purchased by Africans living and working abroad. These tokens can then be redeemed for goods and services within Africa, bypassing the high fees charged by traditional remittance companies.

The use of blockchain technology and tokens allows SureRemit to offer a much cheaper and more efficient service than its traditional counterparts. This is of great benefit to Africans who often have to contend with high remittance fees which can eat into a significant portion of their earnings. By lowering the barriers to money transfer, SureRemit is opening up Africa to a world of new economic opportunities.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the application of blockchain technology in government and democracy in Africa will depend on the specific context and needs of each country. However, some potential applications of blockchain in this context include using the technology to create a secure and transparent voting system, help manage land ownership and property rights, and streamline the delivery of government services.

The use of blockchain technology in good governance in Africa can help to improve transparency and accountability in the management of public funds. It can also help to reduce the incidence of corruption by providing a tamper-proof record of all transactions. In addition, blockchain technology can help streamline the delivery of public services by providing a secure and efficient way to store and share data.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of blockchain technology for good governance in Africa. This is because it provides a decentralized and tamper-proof way of storing and sharing data, which can be used to improve transparency and accountability in government.

Another potential application of blockchain technology is in the area of elections. In many African countries, elections are often marred by fraud and irregularities. However, if blockchain technology was used to create a digital voting system, it would be much more difficult to rig elections. This would lead to fairer and more democratic elections, which would ultimately benefit the people of Africa.

There are many other potential applications of blockchain technology in good governance in Africa. However, it is important to note that blockchain is still in its early stages of development and it will take some time for its full potential to be realized.

Case 1: Voting

On March 7, the citizens of Sierra Leone went to the polls to elect a new president. This election differed from previous ones in Sierra Leone in that, votes were recorded on a blockchain. The technology was created by Leonardo Gammar of Agora and it anonymously stored votes in an immutable ledger. This is the first time a government election has used blockchain technology. The goal of using blockchain is to reduce voting costs by cutting out paper ballots as well as reducing corruption in the voting process. Click here to read more about it.

Case 2: M-Akiba

M-Akiba is a mobile phone-based bond Retail Bond by the Government of Kenya (GoK) used to raise money for funding government infrastructural development projects. A bond is a loan that the government (GoK) agrees to pay back to the people (the general public) after a certain amount of time. M-Akida is administered through the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) with collaborators including Mobile Network Operators and the Kenya Association of Stock Brokers & Investment Banks (KASIB). It uses the distributed ledger to improve the issuance process through mobile phones. The bond is readily available to every Kenyan by dialling *889# and has a good return on investment of 10% per year. Hence, Kenyans can easily invest in their country’s future while enhancing their savings and investment culture.

Here, It is used to create a secure, decentralized database of educational qualifications and transcripts. This could help to tackle the problem of fraudulent qualifications and transcripts, which is a significant problem in many African countries.

Another potential application for blockchain technology in the education sector is in the area of payments. Blockchain technology could be used to create a secure, decentralized system for processing and managing payments between students, teachers, and educational institutions. This could help to reduce the costs and complexity of making and receiving payments for education-related purposes.

Finally, blockchain technology could also be used to create a secure, decentralized system for managing educational data. This could help to improve the efficiency and accuracy of data management in the education sector, as well as provide a more secure way of storing and sharing educational data.

Case 1: UABA Zambia

United Africa Blockchain Association (UABA) is a Non-Profit Organization that promotes the adoption of blockchain technologies in Africa. UABA partnered with Zambia Science and Technology Ministry in February 2022 for the Youth Empowerment Pilot Project in Zambia. This project aims to create sustainable local communities that can earn and use cryptos for their daily transactions and develop blockchain-powered tools for the Zambian public sector.

UABA prepares the African youths for the 4th Industrial Revolution while equipping them with the skills to create their own startups and for employment opportunities.

Case 2: Atala Prism

The Atala PRISM platform and service suite is built on the Cardano blockchain and offers a way to create and manage decentralized IDs (DIDs) and verifiable credentials. This allows for a more secure and private way to manage one's digital identity. The suite of tools and frameworks offered by Atala PRISM can help expand one's ecosystem by allowing for easy integration with other services and applications.

To streamline and improve the efficiency of the education system in Ethiopia, the Ministry of Education has partnered with Input Output to implement a national student and teacher ID, and an attendance recording system based on blockchain technology. Atala PRISM's identity solution will enable authorities to create tamper-proof education credentials for 3,500 schools, 5 million students, and 750,000 teachers. This will allow for more accurate and up-to-date records of student and teacher performance, as well as provide a more secure system for managing and storing educational data.

In addition, the use of blockchain technology will ensure the integrity of the data by creating a permanent and tamper-proof record of all transactions. This partnership is a transformative and innovative step forward for the education system in Ethiopia and will no doubt improve the quality of education for all involved.

The current system for energy distribution in Africa is inefficient and prone to corruption. With blockchain, each transaction could be recorded and verified on a public ledger, making it much more difficult to commit fraud.

In addition, it could help to create a more efficient and decentralized energy distribution network. For example, peer-to-peer energy trading platforms could allow users to buy and sell energy directly with each other without the need for a central authority.

Blockchain could also be used to create digital tokens that represent units of energy. These tokens could then be traded on decentralized exchanges, allowing a more efficient way to buy and sell energy. Its potential applications in the energy sector are numerous and could potentially transform the way energy is distributed in Africa. It will be interesting to see how this technology develops in the coming years.

Case 1: Sinan Energy

Sinan Energy, the South African blockchain startup is working on a new way to fund renewable energy projects using blockchain technology. The company plans to build over 100MW of distributed generation, which means they will be selling tokenized carbon credits. This will help them record and verify the carbon credits generated from their own plants. Once they have international certification, they will be able to trade carbon credits on global carbon markets. In addition, Sinan Energy is also planning to build decentralized grids and standalone plants at client sites.

Case 2: Brooklyn Energy

Brooklyn Energy is a blockchain-powered energy marketplace that allows prosumers (residential and commercial solar panel owners) to sell excess solar energy generated to New York City (NYC) residents interested in using renewable energy. Brooklyn Microgrid assists in the spread of solar energy consumption and production throughout New York City.

They help reduce our carbon footprint by allowing anyone to easily access and purchase solar energy. Solar panel owners can sign up for an account easily and list the energy for sale on the marketplace.

The potential applications of blockchain technology in the digital contents/assets & arts in Africa are numerous and varied. For instance, it could be used to create a decentralized database of African art and artefacts. This would make it easier for people to access and view these items. Moreover, blockchain could be used to track the provenance of African art and artefacts, which would help to ensure that they are not sold illegally or counterfeit.

Furthermore, it could be used to create a digital marketplace for African art and artefacts, which will allow artists and collectors to buy and sell these items more efficiently and securely.

Case 1: NFT Marketplaces

NFT Marketplaces are digital platforms that allow users to buy, sell, or trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) e.g OpenSea, Rarible, etc. NFTs are digital assets that are unique and cannot be replicated since they are stored on a blockchain. They are often used to represent items in video games, digital art, and other online communities. The platforms also allow creators to mint their own NFTs and set their own prices.

You can earn income by creating or selling digital assets. For example, you could create a digital art piece or an in-game item and sell it. Also, you can collect or buy NFTs when the price is low and resell them for a profit. Making money in the NFT space is all about finding the right opportunity and providing value. If you can do that, you can earn a great income from these marketplaces.

For example, I owned a couple of NFTs from the NFT collection called Souls backed by Sia and David OReilly which I believe is a great project. Below is a picture of one called Don #1446:

Case 2: Tari Labs

The American-based company Tari Labs offers a digital assets-focused blockchain protocol which is a great way to manage digital assets. This protocol allows anyone to build complex rules for digital assets, which is very helpful for creators. The blockchain offers unparalleled monetization opportunities for creators, which is a big selling point. The Tari project is open source hence developers and entrepreneurs can quickly build useful applications that leverage the Tari protocol, and also contribute to improving the protocol.

The use of blockchain technology in the real estate industry has the potential to revolutionize the way property is bought and sold in Africa. Creating a decentralized database of property owners could make the process of buying and selling property much simpler and more transparent. In addition, by securely storing data related to property transactions on the blockchain, African real estate firms could reduce the risk of fraud and corruption. Ultimately, using blockchain technology in the African real estate industry could make buying and selling property faster, easier, and more secure.

The potential for blockchain technology to revolutionize the real estate industry is vast. In Africa, where a majority of the population is unbanked and land ownership is often informal, blockchain could provide a much-needed boost to the economy. By creating a decentralized registry of ownership, blockchain could make it easier for people to buy and sell a property. This would increase liquidity in the market and make it easier for people to access credit. In addition, by making land ownership more transparent, blockchain could help to combat corruption and land grabs.

In addition to making it easier to buy and sell property, blockchain could also help to streamline the process of registering ownership. This would save time and money, and make it easier for people to prove their ownership of land.

Blockchain could also be used to create smart contracts for leasing property. This would automate the process of rent collection and make it easier for landlords to enforce their rights. In addition, smart contracts could be used to automatically transfer ownership of property when it is sold.

The potential applications of blockchain technology in the real estate industry are numerous and far-reaching. In Africa, where the need for reform is huge, blockchain could be a game-changer.

Case 1: BenBen

BenBen is the Ghanian-based Land registry platform leveraging blockchain technology to provide fast and easy access to trusted land content. It uses the Ethereum blockchain to provide a digital register system for all land registries across Ghana. Financial institutions and Land Commissions have access to the data in real-time, hence speeding up real estate transactions.

Case 2: Provat

PropVat is a blockchain platform that offers property verification and valuation services. The company is based in Africa and its primary target market is African property owners. The platform allows users to get access to loan facilities that typically require collateral like property. The company aims to help property owners turn their assets into something they can access credit with.

Blockchain technology is becoming increasingly popular in several industries, including supply chains and logistics. Africa is a continent with a large population and a growing economy, making it an ideal place to implement blockchain technology in supply chains and logistics. There are several advantages to using blockchain technology in these industries, including improved transparency, security, and efficiency.

One of the biggest advantages of using blockchain technology in supply chains is improved transparency. With blockchain, each step in the supply chain is recorded and verified on a public ledger. This means that all parties involved in the supply chain can see exactly what is happening at every stage. This can help to improve communication and coordination between different parties, as well as reduce the risk of fraud or other crimes.

Another advantage of blockchain technology is improved security. Because blockchain is a decentralized system, it is much more difficult for hackers to tamper with or steal data. Additionally, all data stored on the blockchain is encrypted, further protecting it from tampering. This makes blockchain an ideal solution for handling sensitive data in supply chains and logistics.


Finally, blockchain technology can also help to improve efficiency in supply chains and logistics. With this, there is no need for a middleman or intermediaries, as all transactions are verified and recorded on the public ledger. This can help to speed up transactions and reduce costs. Additionally, blockchain can automate many processes in supply chains and logistics, further reducing the need for manual labor. Overall, blockchain technology has a lot of potential applications in supply chains and logistics. Africa is a continent with a growing economy and a large population, making it an ideal place to implement blockchain technology. Doing so could help improve transparency, security, and efficiency in these industries.

Case 1: Tacr

The diamond industry has long been shrouded in secrecy and plagued by conflict diamonds. But a new blockchain platform called Tracr is looking to change that. Tracr is a joint venture between De Beers Group, the world's largest diamond producer, and IBM. The platform uses blockchain, to track diamonds from the mine to the retail store. Each diamond is given a unique identifier that is registered on the blockchain. That way, buyers can be sure that the diamond they're buying is not a conflict diamond, and sellers can track the provenance of their diamonds. The platform is still in development, but it has already attracted some big names in the diamond industry, including Alrosa, Signet Jewelers, Finestar, and Rosy blue. With Tracr, the diamond industry is finally starting to get more transparent. And that's good news for everyone involved.

Case 2: Circulor

Circulor is a company using blockchain to offer one of the most mature industrial supply chain traceability solutions. They achieved the first-ever tracing of a conflict mineral called Tantalum from Rwanda to the manufacturer. Tantalum is a rare mineral used in making electronic components like capacitors that can be found in most electronic devices e.g computers, phones, etc. This case study was to ensure that every bag of tantalum ore from Rwanda (the world’s biggest supplier of Tantalum) was mined, transported, and processed under OECD-approved conditions, without any child or slave labor. Read more on this case study

The potential applications of blockchain technology in identity management are far-reaching and have the potential to transform the way we manage personal data. In Africa, where many people do not have formal identification, blockchain-based systems could provide a way to create and store identity information that is secure, tamper-proof, and accessible to all.


Blockchain technology could be used to create a decentralized identity management system that would give individuals full control over their personal data. Such a system would allow users to share only the data they want to share when they want to share it, and with whom they want to share it. It would also allow individuals to revoke access to their data at any time.


A blockchain-based identity management system would have numerous advantages over existing systems. It would be more secure, as data would be stored in a decentralized manner and would be resistant to hacks and data breaches. It would also be more efficient, as data would be stored in a digital format and would not require physical documents to be created or maintained.


Finally, it would give individuals full control over their personal data, which would empower them and help to protect their privacy. The implementation of a blockchain-based identity management system in Africa would have several benefits.

Case 1: NIRA

The National Identity Registration Authority platform of Uganda is a big step forward for the country. It is used to record and manage the identities of citizens and residents of Uganda.

Case 2: Sierra Leone Identity platform

The National Digital Identity Platform is a big step forward for the country of Sierra Leone. The use of blockchain technology will help to secure the identities of citizens and also help to provide access to financial services. This is a big project that has been launched by the government and it is hoped that it will help to transform the country's financial sector.