Stakeholders across the finance and payment landscape in Africa, have commended Appzone on the launch of Zone, Africa’s first blockchain platform for payment processing. At the official launch event held in Lagos, the stakeholders, made up of captains of industry and business leaders, discussed the significant role that Zone will play in decentralizing payments and inter banks transactions across Africa, whilst also calling for increased collaboration from all in the finance and technology sectors, to advance Africa’s Fintech Industry. While delivering the Keynote address at the event, CEO and Founder of Sparkle, Mr. Uzoma Dozie, disclosed that with the right amount of collaboration and adoption, Zone will improve existing payment infrastructure and create robust experiences for players in the market. Dozie added: “Zone is built on a new technology that addresses trust and transparency in the sense that users don’t have to rely on the bank’s central system where they are locked out of the process. With Zone, users are more aware, and they perfectly understand every single bit of the process, which creates the transparency needed to build trust and increased adoption. Speaking about the unique features of Zone, CEO and founder of Appzone Group, Mr. Obi Emetarom, described Zone as more than a blockchain payment platform. According to him, Zone is a financial network, made up of different financial institutions, that delivers payment processes and real-time settlement. “The Zone platform offers users exciting opportunities, it is a ubiquitous network because it connects all sorts of financial institutions from payment companies, microfinance banks to fintech to digital banks. Zone also uses peer-topeer routing, which means that all the institutions leveraging the platform can connect directly without any middleman, ensuring reliability and scalability,” added Emetarom. Developed by Appzone Switch, a subsidiary of Appzone Group, Zone forms the foundation of Appzone’s plans to build out Africa’s first decentralized payment network which will allow inter-bank transactions to be processed directly between banks without the involvement of an intermediary.