Wow, it really has been a while since I've been on Steemit, it's great to see the community still active as ever.
The reason for my absence is however justified. We've been hard at work pulling together something quite extraordinary. We've created a revolutionary finance model set to change the world of banking and global finance.
The brains behind this venture, is a South African IT veteran, colleague and good friend, Sonny Fisher, who has quietly been building a global ecosystem. Having first conceived of the idea ten years ago, Fisher has spent the last three years in Port Elizabeth, South Africa preparing to make Port Elizabeth a Smart Cashless City.
Early on in his research, Sonny identified the single biggest challenge to adoption was gaining ubiquity in a market controlled by cartels".
"The only way to achieve this is by starting off in a place large enough to prove its scale, but small enough to gain market share of greater than 30%.'
Being a bit of a math savant, Sonny spent two years designing the business model for a digital financial platform. This was 2010, the beginning of smartphones and Bitcoin.
"I knew within half an hour of my first bank IT meeting, that what they were currently charging for would be free." This was the era when Skype, Google Maps, Gmail and Facebook were gaining global ubiquity. Leaving massive companies with billions sunk into aging infrastructure and closed business models
After developing an NFC closed-loop platform for ABSA, and the prototype for QR payments with FIREID in 2013, Sonny moved to Atlanta, the payment capital of the USA. There he worked with US Bank, Elavon and Union Pay and used our QR technology to drive merchant adoption.".
This was the first time FORUS was involved in a project to look at the practical implementation of a ubiquitous new payment system. The town of Aspen in Colorado was identified as a potential site, but finally, they settled on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten. Hurricane Irma put paid to plans to roll out in the Caribbean.
Sonny came home and 'discovered' Port Elizabeth. The perfect place to use technology to transform this familiar Eastern Cape landmark."
South Africa, Nelson Mandela Bay and the people of the Eastern Cape have the chance to launch a new global financial platform, and finally bring economic freedom to the people of Africa.
For the last couple of years, we have been engaging with local communities and government. We have gained all the traction we need to launch FORUS into the formal economy. From the universities to taxi associations, from the business chamber to agriculture, Corporations to street vendors. Port Elizabeth is primed for the 4th industrial revolution.
Soon Port Elizabeth will be the first African smart city and with the introduction of the FORUS model, we will be able to offer 0% production loans and debt consolidation to emerging entrepreneurs from the informal sector... Those that were previously excluded. We are on a mission to spread prosperity and this is only the beginning. Watch this space.