The Afghan Ministry of Public Health has signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with blockchain firm ‘Fantom Operations‘ to unite blockchain technology into the country’s healthcare sector.

 The terms of the MoU would employ blockchain to identify spurious medicines, digitize patients’ files, and create medical registries in hospitals. Elucidating on the initiative, Afghan Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz said:

“The Ministry of Public Health is committed to the institutionalization of electronic government in the health sector, and the blockchain technology would help the ministry bring acceleration, transparency, and effectiveness in the related affairs.”

Both the government and the public have displayed anxieties about the number of artificial pharmaceuticals in the country, with many subjects using traditional medicine for health problems due to their inexpensiveness and openness, according to an April report from the ‘European Asylum Support Office.’

 The report read, “The Medicine Importers Union stated that at least 40% of medicine and medical equipment enter the Afghan market illegally and many of the pharmaceutical products are of cheap quality”.

Afghanistan-oriented blockchain initiatives

This summer, the United Nations revealed that it began working on blockchain solutions for sustainable urban development in Afghanistan. The organization is developing blockchain solutions for land records and services transparency as a part of the UN’s “City for All” initiative.

The United Nations initiative envisions Afghanistan’s population becoming mostly urban consecutively in the next 15 years. Its three stated priorities are strategic urban planning, effective land management, and improved municipal finance.

In April, Afghanistan’s central bank governor ‘Khalil Sediq’ said that the institution was regarding issuing a sovereign crypto bond to accumulate $5.8 billion. Alongside Bitcoin, Sediq reportedly discussed metal futures and pointed out that the country’s mineral reserves are evaluated to be worth over $3 trillion.