Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Avanza signed an MOU with Smart Dubai Office on 11^th April 2017 to implement a citywide blockchain based payments platform.

Avanza’s Blockchain Platform Cipher was selected by Smart Dubai Office to deliver a Pilot Project under the Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) program on 14^th Feb 2017.

Dubai Future Accelerators is a unique program for cutting-edge entrepreneurs, in partnership with the government of Dubai, to use the city as a living test-bed for creating solutions to the global challenges of tomorrow. Launched in July 2016 by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, under the directive of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, The Dubai Future Accelerators pairs top companies & cutting-edge entrepreneurs with leading government entities in Dubai to create breakthrough solutions together. Unlike other programs, the uniqueness of Dubai Future Accelerators lies in its drive to not only visualize innovative ideas, but to see them become a reality implemented on a city-wide scale with an impact regionally and globally. Within the program each government entity issues a challenge addressing some of the most important opportunities of the 21st century.

Through Cipher, Avanza has successfully delivered an immutable, agile and instant reconciliation and settlement platform to Smart Dubai Office for DubaiPay payment platform. The pilot project was delivered in collaboration with Dubai Smart Government and Emirates NBD – the largest retail banking franchise in Dubai and the market leader across core business lines.

Smart Dubai Office plans to roll out Cipher across all its existing 38 partner government entities, partner financial institutions and Departments to set up the first blockchain based building block within its financial plumbing.

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The MOU signed by Dr. Aisha Butti bin Bishr, Director General, Smart Dubai and Waqas Mirza, Managing Director & Chief Marketing Officer Avanza Solutions is in line with His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision to transform Dubai into the 1^st Government in the world to execute all applicable transactions on the blockchain by 2020.

“We, at Smart Dubai, consider technology to be a means for us to help improve people’s quality of life and spread happiness among them. Correctly app“I am confident with Avanza’s expertise in payment solutions combined with their Cipher blockchain platform, they will support the Smart Dubai Office with technology that not only bridges current gaps but also becomes a vital piece in Smart Dubai’s roadmap for payment processes in the near future.”lied across various key sectors, we believe Blockchain has massive potential to achieve our emirate’s ambitions for a fully-fledged smart transformation”

Speaking at the Signing Ceremony Dr. Aisha – Director General, Smart Dubai

“Taking on innovation led challenges is Avanza’s DNA. So much so, that we go out of our way to seek challenges that compel us to push boundaries of our imagination and competence. This passion instills into everything we do and this is why we are extremely happy and proud to be a part of this extraordinary program and take part in Dubai’s transformation to become the region’s technology and innovation hub

Waqas Mirza, CEO,  Avanza Innovations