Cryptocurrencies in a very unstable world

Cryptocurrencies in a very unstable world:
impact on Africa and Emerging countries

Wednesday 23 March 2022, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm

Open to all Sciences Po community members. Participants are invited to attend this event in-person.

Registration is compulsory.

Cryptocurrencies and digital solutions used to play a bigger role in our societies.  At the same time, the IMF recently urged El Salvador to stop recognising bitcoin as legal tender. What is exactly at stake? At a time when the world is facing unprecedented challenges in a very volatile context, there are different ways to promote financial innovations and address many country needs.

>PSIA welcomes our guest keynote speaker, Gregory Schmidt, a successful entrepreneur in Asia and in Africa for a passionate debate with the participation of Valentin M'Bozo, CEO of GIMAC (Central African electronic banking interbank Grouping) and moderated by our PSIA faculty and investment banker, Benoît Chervalier.

The event will be followed by a cocktail reception organized by ASPA.

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Gregory Schmidt
CEO of Kiwigo

Gregory Schmidt is a veteran digital entrepreneur, with a career spanning over 15 years, specialized in mobile payment and banking networks. He is a member of the OCCE (Organization for Climate and Circular Economy), and responsible for a working group dedicated to financing and nurturing startups in green techs, and promoting the inclusion of blockchains. In the late 2000s, he launched multiple digital media websites in France, centered around video monetization and personnel blogs.

Following some early success, he expanded his websites to other markets and sold the activity in 2012. He ran multiple successful ventures with new projects in Europe until 2016 when he created the first Fintech Company in Laos with Alipay (a subsidiary of Alibaba Group) as partners. The project evolved as KiwiPay and then extended to over 20 countries as KiwiGo.

Valentin Mbozo'o
CEO of GIMAC

Valentin Mbozo'o has been Managing Director of the Groupement Interbancaire Monétique de l'Afrique Centrale (GIMAC) since November 20, 2012, an organization in charge of interbank electronic banking in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa - CEMAC (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad).

Before joining GIMAC, for twenty years, Valentin managed several IT entities and projects, particularly in the banking and electronic payment fields. For a dozen years in the interbank environment of CEMAC, with an active participation in the Reform of Systems and Means of Payment in Central Africa led by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), he held the position Project Manager of the said Reform at the time of his appointment to GIMAC.

MODERATOR:

Benoît Chervalier
Founder and Chairman of one2five advisory; Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po Paris

Benoît Chervalier is an investment banker and debt restructuring and project finance expert on African markets. After spending the first part of his career for around ten years in the public sector at the French Treasury and the African Development Bank Group, Benoît benefits from high-level experiences as an executive level in major industrial (Airbus) and banking (Rothschild&Co) groups.

He has gained more than 20 years of experience in international project transactions and has a strong track record of transactions in the African region. Entrepreneur, he founded "one2five advisory" early 2016, a corporate and sovereign financial advisory firm. He led in this capacity more than 30 mandates in project finance and debt restructuring generating more than $3bn transactions.