FEC okays nat’l Blockchain Policy

By Egena Sunday Ode

TheFederal Executive Council (FEC) at its seating on Wednesday, approved a national blockchain policy. Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami made the disclosure while briefing newsmen after the Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

A blockchain is a digital evergrowing list of data records. Such a list is comprised of many blocks of data, which are organized in chronological order and are linked and secured by cryptographic proofs.

The first prototype of a blockchain is dated back to the early 1990s when computer scientist Stuart Haber and physicist W. Scott Stornetta applied cryptographic techniques in a chain of blocks as a way to secure digital documents from data tampering.

Pantami explained that the new policy was a product of consultations with 56 institutions and personalities whose end goal is to institutionalise blockchain technology in Nigeria’s economy and security sectors.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria today approve the national blockchain policy for Nigeria. This policy was gotten through consultation with our stakeholders where 56 institutions and personalities were involved in the process of conceptualizing, developing and reviewing the policy.

“With the approval of the national blockchain policy for Nigeria today, we can safely say that blockchain technology with all its components and types have been institutionalised in the country,” said the Minister.

He noted that the Security Council has directed regulatory bodies to liaise with the National Information Technology Development Agency to come up with regulatory instruments in all sectors.The approval, according to the Minister, underlines the potential opportunities of blockchain technology even as studies predict that blockchain would add $1.76tn to the global GDP by 2030.

Senate can’t stop

By Egena Sunday Ode

Thefederal government, on Wednesday said Senate can restard the ongoing demolition of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) structures at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, intended to pay way for more befitting structures.

The upper chamber had on Tuesday approved a resolution directing the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, to halt the demolition of the structures, which provided accommodation for agencies involved in aviation activities, until its Committee on Aviation wraps up its intervention in the matter.

But reacting, the Minister said the Senate resolution would not stop the demolition.

Sirika spoke at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Recall that the Senate, after the Chairman of its Committee on Aviation, Senator Biodun Olujimi, called its attention to the development and the threat by aviation workers to resume strike, had ordered that the Ministry of Aviation stopped the demolition.

The Union of Air Transport Employees, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals, and National Association of Aircrafts Pilots and Engineers, had threatened to go on