HOW TO CREATE A BLOCKCHAIN ECONOMY IN MENA

As the first blockchain based payment gateway of the Middle East and North Africa, MenaPay organized a special workshop with Princess of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia H. H. Hanadi Ahmad Khadher and tokenized economy expert Miko Matsumura on October 2nd, 2018 in Istanbul.

The best of two worlds

Princess Khadher combined Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision with Matsumura’s blockchain know-how to support MenaPay project aiming to serve the 84% unbanked population of MENA. Exceeding 440 million people, MENA population is critical to world economy and to tokenized economy endeavors. MenaPay workshop with expert help and enthusiastic investors created a bridge between MENA and the wider blockchain world.

Target: 10 million active users

MenaPay is creating a stable cryptocurrency to integrate these unbanked people to the digital transformation process of finance in the region. Fuelled with blockchain technology and founded in February 2018, MenaPay will provide a fully Islamic Finance compliant and convenient payment solution for people and companies in MENA region. In order to reach its goal of 10 million active users by 2019, MenaPay added an important name to its board members, Princess of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H. H. Hanadi Ahmad Khadher.

Joining forces

MenaPay partners with and receive advice from valuable names of blockchain world. This is why Miko Matsumura also joined to the productive workshop MenaPay organized, so that the company could build a bridge between the Middle East & North Africa, and the wider blockchain ecosystem. A functional and concrete bridge, offering a real solution to a real problem: Financial inclusion of the 400 million unbanked people in MENA region.

Known by his investments in different blockchain enterprises and advisory on selected cryptocurrencies, Miko Matsumura attended the workshop where board and team members of MenaPay discussed the developments in distributed ledger technologies and future of possible partnerships in MENA.

More to come

After the workshop held in MenaPay Istanbul office and exchange of opinions, MenaPay hosted a VIP meeting with more than 40 people including investors, advisors, entrepreneurs, key opinion leaders of Middle East and its exclusive guests Miko Matsumura and H. H. Hanadi Ahmad Khadher.

During this VIP meeting; Miko Matsumura, Princess H. H. Hanadi and investors talked about the usage of blockchain payment system and how it will change daily life and financial system in MENA region, and especially how MenaPay will comply with the local regulations and Islamic Finance.

The fireside chat

After discussing the structure of MenaPay with key opinion leaders of the Middle East, Miko Matsumura stated that MenaPay is a quite promising business in terms of the blockchain technology it provides and the region it focuses and said: “MENA is an important gateway to a much larger footprint. As MenaPay expands it will have access to one of the largest populations on the planet. Here you have extremely large countries like Indonesia, smaller countries like Malaysia, North Africa, and countries like Nigeria, which will end up larger than the United States. MENA is a very meaningful entry point.”