Two Papua New Guinean entrepreneurs are championing the use of new technology in the Pacific by supporting entrepreneurs and the use of innovation.
Nou Vada and Rex Paura first met in 2000 through Nou’s older sister who was Rex’s classmate at school. The second time they met four years later, Rex was working for the World Bank as a program officer and 13-year-old Nou was in Grade Eight.
At the time, the World Bank was running Tingim Yut Kompetisen, a program that encouraged young Papua New Guineans to submit innovative ideas for potential funding.
Nou and his siblings decided to enter the competition with an internet café ‘start-up’ idea and met with Rex regularly to seek guidance.
“It was the first time I had ever experienced a ‘start-up’ situation, and it ultimately failed – just like many start-ups in PNG for a variety of reasons,” remembered Nou. “But the lessons I learned from it are ones that I still carry to this day.”
After their respective studies, the two connected again on Facebook and Nou pitched his blockchain-based insurance idea to Rex.
In July 2017, Nou and Rex started Coin-sure, a crypto-insurance platform that provides loss protection to coin-holders and wallet-owners of crypto-currency.
“Even though we did not study IT, we have learned it in our spare time and were able to build a blockchain company because we can see it from both a legal perspective and an economics perspective,” explains Rex.
The pair have been able to further develop their business idea by accessing blockchain experts and investors from around the world. At the BlockShow Asia conference in 2017, their concept placed eleventh out of 52 other start-ups, and at the Digital Innovation Forum in Chinese Taipei, Nou presented in front of 3,000 potential investors.
The Australian government has supported Nou and Rex to develop their Coin-sure concept by pairing the duo with Generative Solutions, a Melbourne based business and technology consultancy that partners with startups to help them leverage technology to deliver impact.
In addition to being actively involved in PNG Entrepreneurs Academy workshops this year, they organised the first Blockchain Pasifik conference. Held on 11 and 12 October, the event brought together digital entrepreneurs together to share ideas and to promote the digital economy in the region.
A key part of the two-day conference is the Blockchain Pasifik Junior Challenge. Through support from the Australian government, and as part of a pilot to ready students for a digital future, students from four schools – Port Moresby International School, Kopkop College, Kila Kila Secondary and Don Bosco Tech Secondary – have been asked to come up with various blockchain-based solutions for real-world problems affecting Papua New Guinea.
“We’ve been working with four high schools for the last month, and I must say they are all impressive. It’s mind-blowing how much creativity our young people have, and how much intellect they have in understanding these proposed solutions and how to apply them using blockchain,” Nou said.
“Blockchain Pasifik wants to create a culture where we go back and re-invest in our schools, because when you invest in a school, you are investing in our future. It’s something that Rex and I firmly believe in as products of the public-school system in PNG.”
Nou and Rex believe the opportunities for blockchain technology in Papua New Guinea are limitless, especially as the fundamental structure has parallels with the country’s cultural way of life.
“Blockchain as a concept is not foreign to PNG. Anthropologically, we had societies that shared resources and shared the decision-making process so that whatever decision was made, was made for the community, by the community, through the community,” explains Nou.
“That’s what blockchain does. It’s a digital version of that kind of thinking. And so, I believe, we’re at the cusp of a technological revolution here in PNG.”
(From left: Nou Vada and Rex Paura)