Guinea-Bissau has introduced a blockchain platform to manage civil servants’ salaries, aiming to enhance transparency in its corruption-prone environment, according to a statement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday.
Blockchain technology functions as a virtual ledger, securely storing and exchanging information in an unmodifiable manner. Each transaction is recorded in real-time within a tamper-proof register.
An IMF delegation visited the West African nation on Monday to launch a “blockchain solution to strengthen the transparency of wage bill management at the Ministries of Finance and Public Administration,” the IMF reported.
“While many countries are leveraging blockchain for various banking issues, agricultural crop securitisation, or cash-based transfers, Guinea-Bissau is pioneering the use of this technology for structural public finance management,” stated Concha Verdugo-Yepes, the head of the mission.
“To our knowledge, Guinea-Bissau is the first fragile state and the first sub-Saharan African country to adopt this solution,” she added.
The IMF highlighted that blockchain technology would “enhance government operations in wage bill management, strengthen fiscal transparency, and address governance vulnerabilities,” and noted that the platform “detects discrepancies and raises red flags when salary information is inconsistent.”
“This innovation could help build trust in fiscal institutions, increase accountability, and reduce public corruption perceptions,” the organization stated.
Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony of about two million people, has faced chronic instability, with numerous military and political coups since its independence in 1974. It is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranked 158th out of 180 on Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index.
