Barclays Africa opens Supply Chain challenge

Individuals, teams and start-ups based in Africa can win $10 000 prize via the challenge

NAIROBI, July 24,2015-/African Media Agency (AMA)/-Barclays Africa Group Ltd (Barclays Africa) today launched the Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge, the first of several initiatives being driven into Africa with the aims of sparking ideas to drive the digital evolution on the continent.

The announcement follows hot on the heels of the global launch of the Barclays Rise Innovation programme, which is a global community for open innovation, designed to pioneer the future of financial services.

Traditional providers of financial services are being disrupted by new technologies, agile companies and innovative product. Barclays is responding by partnering and collaborating with the innovators and entrepreneurs who drive disruption.

It is with this ideology in mind that Barclays Africa is will be plugging start-ups, corporates and innovators into a physical and digital global network with the aims of co-innovating the ‘next big thing' in financial services.

This is according to Stephen van Coller, Chief Executive of Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa, who announced the challenge today in Nairobi and says the Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge is about supply chain transparency.

“The supply chain, the journey of a product from manufacturer to consumer is often disjointed and inefficient and there is currently a huge amount of interest in finding ways to increase the transparency of provenance, not least of which is the use of Blockchain technology.”

“Blockchain and similar technologies have substantial potential in creating transparency about the series of transactions that occur along any supply chain process,” he says.

Transparency has become increasingly important for supply chains as consumers want to know where the goods they are purchasing actually come from. Food and diamonds are some of the items that require all supply chain participants to ensure traceability of goods.

“One example of innovation that addresses the latter comes out of our London-based innovation hub,” says van Coller. “It's called EverLedger and empowers financial institutions and consumers in tracking the movement of diamonds through the supply chain. The solution is a permanent ledger for diamond certification and related transaction history that simplifies verification for insurance companies, owners, claimants and law enforcement.”

To participate in the Barclays Africa Supply Chain Challenge visit http://www.barclaysafrica.com/barclaysafrica/Supply-Chain-Challenge – a new digital platform for open innovation in fintech, providing advanced resources and capabilities to connect, shape and scale.

The challenge criteria are as follows:

• Entrants are challenged to propose a solution that creates more transparency between seller and buyer, through the supply chain.

• Entrants are encouraged to use Blockchain, Distributed Ledger or any other technology that will do the job.

• The challenge is open to individuals, teams and start-ups.

• Entrants should be aged between 18 and 35 years.

• Entrants must be based in Africa.

• Entrants can be suited to any industry, including textiles, mining, finance, food, water and more.

• There is a $10 000 prize for the overall winner.

• One member from each finalist team will be invited to pitch to a panel of renowned experts in Cape Town, South Africa on 3 November 2015.

• Entries open on 24 July and close on 18 September 2015.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Barclays Africa Group.

For more information please contact:

Graeme Coetzee

Barclays Africa Group Media Relations

011 350 8111

+27 (0)79 695 9798

graeme.coetzee@absa.co.za

About Barclays Africa Group

Barclays Africa Group Limited is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and is one of Africa's largest financial services groups. We are uniquely positioned as a fully global, fully regional and fully local bank. We offer personal and business banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management as well as bancassurance.

Barclays Africa is 62.3% owned by Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays). At 31 December 2014, we had 847,8 million shares in issue and a market capitalisation of R154,0 billion. We operate in 12 countries with more than 41 thousand permanent employees and we have 12 million customers.

Our registered head office is in Johannesburg, South Africa and we have majority stakes in banks in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania (Barclays Bank Tanzania and National Bank of Commerce), Uganda and Zambia. We also have representative offices in Namibia and Nigeria. Barclays Bank PLC has operations in Egypt and Zimbabwe which are an integral part of our African business and continue to be run by Barclays Africa operationally.

For further information about Barclays Africa, please visit our website www.barclaysafrica.com.

About Barclays

Barclays is an international financial services provider engaged in personal, corporate and investment banking, credit cards and wealth management with an extensive presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays' purpose is to help people achieve their ambitions – in the right way. With 325 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 130,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.

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