Sawa Minerals works with small-scale miners who make a huge contribution to the global minerals trade
The platform utilizes blockchain-backed smart contracts to make it easy to buy and sell ethically mined precious metals and stones in a safe and transparent manner
NAIROBI, 16 April 2019 – Sawa Minerals, a tech-driven startup has created and launched a trading platform that will open up the mining industry.
The platform will simplify and ease the buying and selling of ethically mined minerals from artisans and small scale miners (ASM) across Africa and the developing world.
The name ‘Sawa’ is Swahili for “fine”, “all good” or “no worries”. The start-up’s CTO & Co-founder Mr. Kali Angwa said they settled on the name because it captures the purpose of the platform.
Sawa Minerals platform utilizes blockchain-backed smart contracts to make it easy to buy and sell ethically mined precious metals and stones in a safe and transparent manner.
The ultimate goal of Sawa Minerals is to bring transparency, and ensure that artisans and small-scale miners are part of an inclusive value chain that will transform their livelihoods.
It is a sad reality that small-scale miners in Africa and the rest of the developing world make a huge contribution to the global minerals trade yet they remain poor because of the middlemen who offer exploitative prices in exchange for their minerals.
Sawa Minerals challenges this status quo by connecting sellers with buyers directly through it’s safe and secure platform.
Mr. Angwa said the start-up is committed to inspiring an ecosystem that will shape the future of ethical mining, one that is free of exploitative middlemen, where the ASM community will benefit from their hard work and earn a life-sustaining income.
“The entire minerals sourcing chain across Africa and the developing world lacks transparency and efficiency. The Sawa Minerals platform ensures trust between mineral buyers and traders by utilizing smart contracts which only mature once both ends of the deal are fulfilled.”, said Mr. Angwa.
All licensed artisans and small-scale miners, as well as buyers and traders, can sign up with Sawa Minerals by visiting SawaMinerals.com and registering.
Sawa Minerals will also play an active role in guiding the miners to become compliant with their countries’ regulations. This is one of the measures the new start-up has put in place to ensure that buyers are confident of engaging in transparent sourcing that is free of worries, once again living up to the real meaning of Sawa!
The organizing of the artisanal and small-scale miners in one inclusive platform will no doubt bring many advantages not only to buyers and ASM members but governments as well. It will improve earnings from the mineral deposits of individual countries.
