SA to ‘highly benefit’ from Wala, Dala, FincomEco, BLCC partnership – Wala COO

Samer Saab, co-founder and COO of blockchain financial platform Wala, says that South Africa will “highly benefit” from partnerships similar to its collaboration between the company, Dala, Block Commodities Limited (BLCC), and the Financial and Commodities Ecosystem (FinComEco).

Announced last week, the strategic partnership will see commodity trader BLCC and FinComEco provide 100-million Dala token loans worth $10-million to 50 000 smallholder farmers — first in Uganda, followed by Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Republic of Congo — to purchase fertiliser.

The FinComEco, BLCC collaboration agreement with Wala and Dala aims to provide $10-million in Dala tokens to 50 000 small holder farmers in six countries

Saab (pictured above, left) said the token loans will likely start getting distributed in Uganda in the second quarter.

“The partnership will solve two infrastructure issues around the disbursement of capital and the distribution of high quality fertiliser,” he said, adding that the partnership was an opportunity for Dala to provide financial infrastructure.

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In a Medium post on Thursday (22 March) announcing the partnership, Wala CEO Tricia Martinez (pictured above, middle) said the goal is to “empower smallholder farmers with fertiliser to maximize the value of their agricultural output by providing access to financing and tracking their commodities through blockchain technology platforms”.

“Wala will support the use of the Dala utility token as the functional token for the food commodities cycle trading ecosystem which is currently being established by BLCC and its partner, FinComEco,” the company announced in a press release.

Saab said the deal which “got done very quickly” came about after BLCC and FinComEcco got wind of Wala’s token sale last year, culminating in a meeting in Uganda.

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Featured image: Wala team from left to right COO Samer Saab, CEO Tricia Martinez and CTO Ross McEwan (Supplied)