Lecturer receives award for research
UNIVERSITY of Zululand senior lecturer in the Department of Accounting and Auditing, Raphael Jankeeparsad, recently scooped the best paper award for his research on cryptocurrency.
He received the award at the Southern African Accounting Association’s (SAAA) international conference held in Johannesburg.
SAAA promotes education and research in the field of accountancy. It hosts its international conference biennially, with this year’s conference held under the theme, ‘Breaking Barriers and Moving Boundaries’. Jankeeparsad’s research unpacked the concept of ‘enduser adoption of Bitcoin in South Africa’.
‘Over the last three years or so, cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, has taken the world by storm.
‘My research set out to determine what factors influence individuals in South Africa to utilise Bitcoin and to investigate in what manner it was being utilised by South Africans,’ Jankeeparsad said. His interest in technology and the latest technological trends drew him to cryptocurrency. ‘Cryptocurrency began causing regulatory challenges in the world owing to its decentralised nature. ‘I discovered that in South Africa there were many Bitcoin millionaires springing up, owing to the exponential increase in the value of Bitcoin, and this was the catalyst that lead to my research,’ he said.