Blockchain technology in the Middle East and North Africa region

ABSTRACT

Blockchain Technology has disrupted our social, business, and technical domains and will continue to do so in the next coming years. As technology is still in its early stages, with several countries investigating ways of utilizing it and incorporating their systems and frameworks' capabilities. The Blockchain community is now recognizing some significant limitations, such as the absence of regulatory frameworks, collaborative leadership, a relatively small number of use cases, the challenge of cross country collaboration, and the limited availability of a skilled, educated workforce. The need for awareness and increased adoption in both developed and developing countries is of paramount importance, and this paper aims to contribute to this area. The paper seeks to shade light regarding the use of blockchain technology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

KEYWORDS:

• Blockchain
• developing countries
• land registry
• cross-border payments
• MENA region
• UAE

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Papadaki

Dr Maria Papadaki has over ten years of experience in Risk Management from both Academia and Industry, with numerous of years in the implementation, development, improvement and management of risk frameworks, tools and techniques. An individual who can be exposed to a wide range of areas and proves the ability to manage, lead projects, influence, manage people, motivates and drives change in different environments. Her portfolio of achievements includes: Created and Managed the BUiD PMO office; Developed and executed a risk strategy to support a bid for a £7.2bn; Managed the Risk and Business Continuity Management process for Rolls-Royce Supply Chain. Identified and improved risk maturity for 1200 suppliers; Managed and Designed the Supply Chain Risk Management strategic framework in Rolls Royce; Lead and organized benchmarking sessions between organisations (e.g. Zurich, Cisco and Rolls-Royce); Initiated the idea and led the development of the first innovation Hub (H2B) in Crete, Greece on behalf of the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Maria is now working as the Director for BUiD's Dubai Center of Risk Innovation (DCRI) and as an Assistant Professor for BUiD. Under this profile, she has been leading the development of digital certificates for BUiD's graduates, which made the university 1st in the Middle East and 3rd in the world piloting Blockchain technology in education. This project is a result of the collaboration of University of Nicosia, Block.co and BUiD's DCRI. Maria also holds a position as a visiting lecturer at the University of Manchester and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) in London. Her research interests include Enterprise Risk Management interface with disruptive technologies such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and IoT.

Ioannis Karamitsos

Ioannis Karamitsos (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.) has vast research academic and industry experience over 30 years as an executive manager who worked within the private and public sectors and experienced within European, Middle East and Chinese companies. From 2020 to present, Ioannis is an Assistant Professor of Data Analytics at Rochester Institute of Technology-Dubai Campus. In 2016, he had joined Department of Electrical Engineering as an Adjunct Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai. From 2010 to 2020, Ioannis was a Digital Transformation Technologist at Orange Business Services, with ten years of consulting experience working with clients to develop and deliver their strategies and transform their organisations into Smart and Digital Cities. Ioannis is member of DSOA-Dubai Innovation Advisory Board. He is particularly interested in applying Blockchain, Cryptography, Machine learning, IIoT, and data mining techniques to emerging problems related to large-scale decentralized cyber-physical systems and critical infrastructures as well as energy, health care and other domains of major economic and social impact. Ioannis received his PhD in Computer Science from University of Sunderland, UK, a Master Degree in Telematics Management from University of Danube Krems, Austria, and Bachelor Degree (Laurea) in Electronic Engineering from University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy. His have also executive certificates from Oxford University (Blockchain Strategy), MIT (Tackling the challenge of Big Data) and from Columbia Business School (Driving Strategic Impact Program).