BUSINESS

NEUROGINE, UMS IN JOINT STUDY ON USING BLOCKCHAIN FINANCE TO TACKLE FOOD SHORTAGE

02/11/2022 06:59 PM

By Jailani Hasan

LABUAN, Nov 2 (Bernama) -- Neurogine Group of Companies, a financial technology developer of mobile platforms for banking, money broking and merchant services, has announced it will conduct a joint study with University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to address food shortage in the country.

The research will be in the form of a year-long study, with a grant provided by Neurogine, on the use of blockchain finance and tokenisation services to enable small and medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly domestic farmers and smallholders, to access global capital market funds and seek investments in their efforts to improve yields and address food shortages currently faced by many states.

Neurogine Group chief executive officer Owen Chen said a dedicated team from Neurogine and UMS comprising five researchers will undertake the study. 

“We have selected specific researchers after thorough and rigorous screening procedures since July 2022,” he told Bernama after giving a talk on scams at the UMS Labuan International College here today.

Chen said the focus of the research is aligned with the Labuan International Business and Financial Centre Blueprint, a five-year strategic roadmap, and supports the recent implementation of the Labuan Islamic Digital Asset Centre.

“We have been facing an unprecedented rise in food prices and food supply interruption. 

“Such disruption has macro destabilising effects, including social ills, unemployment and crime,” he said.

According to Chen, food producers need to invest in automation and newer production techniques as well as reducing input costs to have better yields.

“Part of our research aims to explore if we can accelerate the adoption of blockchain finance by our domestic food producers, specifically in using tokenisation services to access the global capital market,” he said.

Chen also announced that Neurogine has completed beta testing its new tokenisation service platform, which is poised for launch in 2023. 

“Tokenisation and asset fractionalisation will lower barriers to investment in markets like our domestic agriculture industry by sharply reducing minimum lot sizes.

“We want to accelerate the impending shift from traditional fractionalisation to on-chain tokenisation. This will expand the scope of asset classes, stakeholder groups and regulatory scope for tokenisation. 

“Our new platform, Neurogine nToken, will prominently have liquidity features, enabling investors to distribute and trade tokens,” he said.

However, Chen said, a gap exists between domestic agricultural players and the adoption of tokenisation services. 

He said part of the research will focus on identifying and mitigating such obstacles.

“We have to explain that assets that are fractionalised and tokenised on a platform like Neurogine nToken will have reduced minimum investment sizes, from millions of ringgit to just thousands of ringgit,” he said. 

This research project is one of several collaborations resulting from a memorandum of understanding signed between UMS and Neurogine on July 21, 2022. 

“We see advantages in hybridising our blockchain expertise for domestic use, particularly for farmers and smallholders. 

“It will provide new access to global funding to increase food production, ensure sustainable harvests and more. Given the current crisis, we think this is timely,” Chen added.

-- BERNAMA


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