“Blockchain can improve the government” – Chris Ani at Coinference 2023

At Technext Coinference 2023, with the theme, Disruptive Tech: New Frontiers, New Opportunities, Chris Ani, the founder of Daba School called for a more robust adoption of crypto in Africa. Ani, himself a long-time advocate for crypto adoption, highlighted the possibilities that crypto as a regulated and licensed open-border payment system will bring to Africa.

Ani who gave the keynote speech titled Blockchain Industry; New Frontiers, New Possibilities at the event said that the opportunities for blockchain on the continent are limitless.

“Imagine for a moment the entire landscape of Africa; Nigeria to Kenya to South Africa, Lagos to Abuja. There is a need for us to do business across these countries and states. Imagine that we have a technology that is beyond the Internet, and can connect us and value can be transferred without the need for a central bank,” he added.

For years the crypto industry in Nigeria especially has been wrecked by erratic government policies that have led to some startups shutting down and others left in limbo. In 2021 the Nigerian government banned crypto transactions in the country.

“Events like this one are for us to shape a new future for this industry and bring out solutions for the problems,” he said.

Ani also spoke about the possibilities of blockchain technology improving the engineering of the government he said: “Talking about the ability to always track transactions back to the source on the blockchain. Imagine a world where transactions and every contract is recorded on a ledger and everything can be tracked.”

But he said that to achieve this, commonsense regulations and policies are needed. “Till today, we don’t know the regulatory system for crypto in Nigeria and it’s the same thing outside Nigeria,” he said.

It is the lack of these policies he argued that the growth of the industry has been stunted. “That’s why it looks like everything about crypto in Nigeria is all about buying and selling,” he said.

Regardless, he remains optimistic about the future of blockchain technology in Nigeria. “There is a blockchain movement happening. People are already using blockchain to solve problems on the continent,” he said.

“We can run and leapfrog if we stay with the original goals that crypto has for us. We can do many transformational things. Get ready for this revolution because blockchain technology isn’t just another buzzword for us,” he said.