Sarah Idahosa is building an army of female blockchain technology experts with Women in DeFI

Many Nigerian teenagers, who are unaware of the advantages of the blockchain industry, perceive it as more or less a scheme to make money. Every day, we hear people talk about airdrops, tokens, etc, and these intriguing conversations have caused quite a number of people to make wrong investment choices in a bid to make quick money.

This was the story of Sarah Idahosa, a microbiologist who has turned her mistake into a booming career and an educational ground for women. She has become an industry player in the blockchain world, a mentor, and the Founder of Women In DeFi, an organization spread across Nigeria that educates women about Blockchain Technology, Decentralized Finance, and NFTs.

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Switching from Microbiology to becoming a DeFi boss lady

Beyond educational qualifications, Sarah was on a mission to survive and start earning money as quickly as possible. She got engaged in different money referral programs and found herself one day in a program built on the blockchain using smart contract abilities. She had no idea what the industry was at the moment.

Sarah Idahosa’s quick sell-off of her Ethereum, which caused her to lose out on possible gains after it rose significantly, changed her perspective. She then resolved to intentionally learn about the Blockchain world and how the industry functions. She enrolled in the Nirvana Academy, and that solidified her decision to switch careers.

I even had to register for a class then at Nirvana academy and that was how I got into the academy, learned about it and said okay, this is where I am staying and I have managed to build a career around it.

Since then, she has continued to climb the ladder of success in that industry. She started as a tutor at the academy she had learned from. In this year’s African Tech Summit, one of the biggest tech summits in Africa, Sarah Idahosa was a Web3 community consultant.

On building her academy, Women In DeFi

While many analysts predicted that Blockchain technology would revolutionize every sector, Nigeria is still developing at its own rate in terms of awareness, adoption, and implementation. There are some business leaders who are contributing to the knowledge-sharing effort, but Sarah Idahosa has chosen to concentrate on women only.

This is because, in her opinion, there aren’t many feminine portrayals of women in the sector. This is true because, according to a 2021 Global Crypto User Index study, roughly 95% of those working in the blockchain industry are males.

Saraha Idahosa founded a community made up of women for women to help spread knowledge about blockchain technology and, of course, the trading element to close the knowledge gap, particularly in Nigeria. The mentorship program, which is only for women, offers the chance to learn about financial freedom with Decentralized Finance.

However, she asserts that other community events that are open to both sexes are held even though they were originally intended for women. Still, because they are held in public, men pick up on the idea, and since learning is important, they end up participating.

Apart from the community and the trading knowledge being shared around, Women In DeFi also provides other skillsets that these women can use, especially when exploring the many job opportunities in the blockchain industry.

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Profits gained

Since its inception in 2022, the community has trained over 500 women, although Sarah Idahosa asserts that there is actually no profit. She focuses on making an impact, and she sees this training as a platform for these women to better themselves, use the blockchain to build a career, and achieve financial independence.

While the mentorship program is free, Sarah is on the hunt for investors and funding opportunities as the community is self-funded at the moment.

I am going to be honest, the profit I have made from training these women is the satisfaction of knowing that these females went from nothing to having a few thousand dollars in their wallets as savings.

The impact of Blockchain knowledge and technologies on the Nigerian ecosystem

Without a doubt, blockchain has a significant effect. Sarah suggests that because it is a burgeoning technology, educating oneself in this field will aid in reducing Nigeria’s unemployment rate.

According to Sarah Idahosa, there are other ways the blockchain industry can benefit the Nigerian fintech ecosystem besides assisting with cross-border payment and security. Blockchain can support financial processes and offer quicker transactional options. It can simplify banking and lending processes and lower counterparty risk.

Also, as a DeFi industry expert, she thinks integrating this into Nigeria’s fintech industry will help the underserved gain access to digital assets and financial technology without conventional obstacles.

With its wide range of options, DeFi can be a flexible asset to every sector. It can also affect the fintech industry, and blockchain can make financial activities more transparent and traceable.

The uses and benefits are unlimited and these are just the ones we know right now, there are still a lot more use cases that have not been explored yet about DeFi, and the blockchain industry.

To her, based on these countless offerings, there is a need for more awareness and knowledge sharing, especially across the government and policymakers, because she believes this is one of the reasons why the adoption rate is slow in Nigeria.

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Predictable future plans for Nigeria

Sarah Idahosa sees a strong collaboration between industry players and the government coming into place. With the launch of the eNaira and the massive global adoption of blockchain technologies by other countries, the next few years will see a major change in Nigeria’s adoption rate,

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