Kashifu Inuwa, the head of the National Information Technology Development Agency of Nigeria, shared his hopes that the country could use blockchain technology to create a revenue stream worth $6 to $10 billion in the next ten years.
Director-General Inuwa made this announcement at a stakeholder meeting in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to discuss the agency’s strategic framework for blockchain adoption in the country. A preliminary draft of the strategy was initially released to the public last month. The document explains how blockchain and decentralized ledger technology can be used to facilitate the development of the country’s upcoming digital economy.
“We want Nigeria to be in a position to retrieve value from the untapped economic potential of blockchain. Looking at our youth, that is generally digitally native, and considering our leading position in Africa, we are looking at the ways we could generate at least six to ten billion dollars profits by the year 2030”, Inuwa noted.
Furthermore, the agency director cited a research paper published by PricewaterhouseCoopers last October that argued blockchain technology, through its many applications, has the potential to add around $1.75 trillion to the world’s GDP in the next ten years. Overall, this would make the industry comprise 1.4% of the global GDP in 2030. Inuwa highlighted that Nigeria could and should take steps to implement the technology in its payment services, government services, digital identification, customer engagement, contract applications etc.
The country of Nigeria has been continually active in positioning itself as the leader of cryptocurrency and blockchain introduction in Africa. Back in May, an Arcane Research analysis established that Nigeria had the second-largest percentage of crypto owners amongst all internet users in Africa, standing at 11%. More importantly, in September this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the country gave a formal definition regarding the digital assets, essentially putting them under its regulatory umbrella.
