BLOCKCHAIN IN NIGERIA AND HOW COXENA IS PREPARED TO LEVERAGE THE EMERGING MARKET

Nigeria is undoubtedly at the top of the list when it comes down to the global adoption of blockchain technology. And, even, despite confronting a bulk of regulatory challenges as much as many parts of the world, where blockchain adoption is on the rise, the African Nation has managed to remain at the forefront of the conversation.

Like everywhere else, blockchain technology is particularly popular in the cryptocurrency market in Nigeria, where the largest use-case for the revolutionary, yet disruptive, technology can be found. For instance, Nigeria which also doubles as Africa’s largest economy currently ranks first on one exchange’s list of fast-growing global Bitcoin marketplace. The country replaced the U.S. on the list as it has now traded over $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin.

Despite the fact that the above list only includes nations where the exchange is active, Nigeria has risen to the top of the overall ranking. According to Yahoo Finance (citing Statista), the African country ranks first among the top ten crypto countries in the globe, capturing a whopping 32% of the whole market.

Just like Nigeria, cryptocurrency has dominated the use-cases for blockchain technology in many other countries, as well. Albeit, as blockchain technology grows more mainstream, developers and enthusiasts are becoming more aware of the vast potentials that lie inside it. Beyond cryptocurrency, which other blockchain technology are applicable? You may ask.

Notable Blockchain Initiatives in Nigeria

While blockchain technology has only gone mainstream in recent years, its implementation across varieties of industries in Nigeria has been nothing short of fascinating, especially, with the crypto exchange platforms at the forefront. Just before we look at other notable areas of use for revolutionary technology, let’s take a look at the crypto exchange landscape in Nigeria.

Exchange markets

While cryptocurrency remains the most common application of blockchain in Nigeria, it also implies that platforms to support transactions and exchanges are required.

Although, currently, there are just a very few indigenous exchanges in Nigeria, hence the reason why a crypto exchange platform headquartered in New York, accounts for the highest number of Nigerian crypto users on a single exchange platform.

Given the huge potentials for blockchain technology in the country, many innovators are taking advantage of the disruptive technology and establishing a new path for themselves in the emerging market.

In fact, apart from leading the African continent, Nigeria has suddenly become a final destination for investors and organizations looking to expand their coast from all over the world. In fact, indigenous exchange platforms account for less than 40% of Nigeria’s major exchange platforms. Coxena, a Nigerian-focused exchange platform, is one of the few crypto exchange platforms established indigenously.

How Coxena Aims to Capture the Emerging Market

The majority of existing crypto exchanges have one thing in common, “they were developed for Nigerians, but not tailored for the average Nigerian”. This may sound confusing but some of the implications include high transaction fees and high entry barriers, in some other cases.

Unlike other exchanges that are used in Nigeria, Coxena is built with Nigerians at heart and intends to offer tailored solutions that cater to their needs. For instance, the exchange allows the users to trade assets (crypto and non-crypto) and fiats.

Similarly, Users can also send and receive remittances (through a peer-to-peer medium); the integrated escrow system and free internal-wallet transfer further lower the transaction costs, which are difficult to come by on most rival platforms.

Coxena goes even further by allowing users to save their crypto assets and earn money, which can then be invested on the same platform. In addition to saving and investing, users can lend and borrow crypto assets, and other crypto assets can be used as a collateral.

While there are many more unique features, Coxena also has an advanced security system, in place, to ensure that users’ funds and data are safe and secure on the crypto exchange platform. For one, Coxena uses a multi-factor, dynamic authentication mechanism, which is enabled for critical actions like withdrawal, trade, etc.

Coxena is on a quest to infiltrate and capture the Nigerian emerging blockchain market, with strategic positioning and specialized features.

Other Notable Blockchain Initiatives in Nigeria Include the Following:

Beyond the crypto space, blockchain also plays a very key role in other areas, with the most notable one as follows:

Economy Diversification

“If you can’t beat them, join them!”

Although it took the Nigerian government longer to accept the new reality, it is now evident that blockchain technology can accomplish so much for her economy. Recently, The Director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Kashifu Inuwa boasted that Nigeria will lead Africa in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and blockchain technology.

During a virtual conference themed “Building a New Africa with AI and Blockchain,” Kashifu noted that given the continent’s expanding population and declining oil revenue, particularly in Nigeria, there was a need to harness other sectors to diversify the economy.

According to Mr. DG, emerging markets like AI and Blockchain are vital areas to concentrate on as they will play important roles in economic diversification. “Digital economy has been identified as an engine of growth, hence Nigeria can harness it as a driver of growth and innovation,” Kashifu discussed further.

Biotech/Oil Sector

The biotech industry is another area where blockchain technology has been discovered to be helpful. In 2019, during Nigeria’s early adoption of modern technology, Chinyere Nnandi, a Nigerian entrepreneur, was supposedly leveraging blockchain and biotech to tackle the country’s oil spill dilemma.

It is common knowledge that Nigeria is blessed with a vast natural oil deposit, and while this has been the country’s cash cow for the past six decades, the communities surrounding the oil-rich regions have suffered immensely as a result of activities such as mining.

The Nigerian Delta region, for example, is frequently featured on the front pages of international news outlets because it has been hit the hardest by the devastating effects of oil spills. So far, the region has witnessed at least 12, 000 cases of oil spillage, and according to a World Health Organization (WHO) study, water in the region was contaminated with benzene at levels up to 900 times more than WHO’s recommendation.

In an attempt to proffer a lasting solution, Nnadi introduced biotechnology called Bioclean, which was developed by a team of researchers led by his mother, Dr. Fidelia Nnadi. The non-toxic, bacteria-based technology helped to degrade and restore contaminated sites in less than 30-days; however, that wasn’t enough as the process was highly prone to corruption.

Seeing how government and non-profit efforts to alleviate the region were being sabotaged as a result of corruption, Nnadi subsequently introduced a blockchain technology with support from a startup called ConsenSys in 2017 in order to ensure accountability and transparency in the administrative process. The two companies then collaborated to create Sela Labs, a platform that uses digital currencies to assure that the clean-up process is free of corruption.

“I brought blockchain to the Niger Delta because the centralized institutional nodes of accountability have been compromised. When a system is sick, and the actors don’t trust each other, no work can be done”, Nnadi once said.

Electricity/Solar Power

In Nigeria, blockchain technology has also been used to solve difficulties related to electricity access. You could be asking yourself, “How?” Well, not that the technology itself provides power (lol), but it does solve the problem of accessibility, particularly, for low-income homes who are largely without access to electricity across the country.

There’s no doubt that installing energy in a country like Nigeria is expensive, but installing a cost-effective option like solar has been increasingly popular in recent years. Solar, on the other hand, necessitates an initial investment that the majority of these households may not be able to access either.

Consequently, OneWattSolar, a Nigerian startup came up with a solution for the problem leveraging the help of blockchain technology. According to a CNN report, the renewable energy startup based in Lagos devised a mechanism for thousands of Africans to pay for solar energy using blockchain tokens instead of paying for the solar system infrastructure, which is backed by financial supporters.

When asked about what inspired the initiative, Victor Alagbe, the founder of the renewable startup and a former business writer said, “I did some writing on Tesla, so I thought it is sunny most of the time here, especially in the northern parts where it is quite arid.”

“So why don’t we use this to power our own electricity… Many Nigerians cannot really afford to set up their own solar systems. They can’t afford the upfront cost so most people would rather go for generators which is not economical when you think of maintenance costs,” Alagbe said.

Victor further buttressed on what birth the idea behind the blockchain payment which according to him, “provides transparency.” “You can see the utilization of funds, how many systems we have purchased, and how many are being used,” Victor added.

From all indications, the application of blockchain payment makes the initiative at least 50% cheaper than other traditional means which include using fossil fuels to generate electricity, i.e using generators.

According to Victor, the long-term goal is to leverage blockchain to connect one million houses without electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa to solar energy by 2025.

Aside from the ones mentioned above, other notable areas where blockchain is playing a critical role include health-tech, Insurtech, fintechs, among several others.

VISION

The mid-term aim of Coxena is to make crypto assets management, payment and exchange a lot easier, remittances easy to process, implement a great user experience for domestic money transfer, and make crypto-payment integration a lot easier for service providers.

The long-term goal is to capture the Nigerian fintech market, at the core of expansion to other African countries and beyond.