Mercy Emmanuel has earned her spot as one of the top marketing executives in Africa’s blockchain/ web3 space. She presently leads the market adoption effort for the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, as a growth manager.
The interesting angle to Mercy’s story is how she was able to navigate her path as a trained law practitioner to become an experienced tech sis.
What is more? Mercy did not know about blockchain 2018. In an interview with Technext, she narrated how she started out as a lawyer, switched careers, learnt about blockchain and attained her spot as a notable player in the African blockchain space.
As a bonus, she shares snippets of advice to women and men interested in building a career as successful growth managers in the industry.
Related: “GTB to Binance;” Olubunmi Fabanwo’s impressive journey from TradFi to Web3 in 7 years
Mercy Emmanuel’s foray into Web3
Mercy first learned about crypto in 2018 when a colleague in her place of work talked about ‘mining’ some coins and making money in return. According to her, it all sounded like gibberish and she was sure that colleague was going to lose all his money.
However, in 2020, the market boom started and the old colleague reached out to Mercy to ‘spite’ her with the returns he got from his cryptocurrencies. This was the defining moment for Mercy Emmanuel.
With that development, she became more inquisitive about crypto and the blockchain technology backing it. A lot of conversations were had about crypto in 2020 so Mercy tapped into them and was fascinated about how the technology could be used to solve the bottlenecks associated with traditional remittances.
Consequently, she secured her first job in the space as the Head of Growth at Xend Finance and with an open mind to learn, her growth was fast-paced.
Transition from Law
Having studied Law at the University of Ibadan, Mercy Emmanuel was called to the bar in 2017. However, six years down the line, she’s bossing a career that is dissimilar to what she learned within the four walls of the classroom.
According to her, this wasn’t much of a transition.
At the University, Mercy was an ambassador for known brands such as Nokia, GTB as well as some other notable Nigerian companies. She was involved in a lot of campaigns and market research/analysis for these.
After university, she worked as a digital marketing professional by managing social media accounts for businesses. Following that, Mercy got a certification in marketing because she had a strong affinity for the field.
“So it wasn’t that much of a pivot for me to go from law to becoming a full-time marketing practitioner.”
– Mercy adds
Now at Binance, Mercy Emmanuel has led the growth and operational strategy for the world’s largest crypto exchange in the African market, achieving significant user base expansion and revenue growth across multiple countries. Focused on growth campaigns in Francophone Africa, she successfully drove an all-time high in trade volume in Q3 2023.
She also masterminded the Binance P2P market entry campaign into Gambia, achieving a record-breaking 30% conversion rate – the highest ever in the region.
Thoughts about Web3
What drew Mercy Emmanuel to Web3 space is the concept of interconnectivity. She was fascinated by the fact that the industry gives access to everyone irrespective of status or location. And, the trustlessness, transparency and simplicity of remittances made her fall in love with the technology.
“When I got in, I saw the amazing thing people were doing. It was interesting and I was excited to be part of that.”
– Mercy. says
Now working for the most prominent crypto exchange in the world, Mercy Emmanuel says one of the qualities that makes her stand out is her knack for learning.
“I’m big on learning. I like to read, write and learn actionable points. How it works and I do a lot of case studies, ask a lot of questions. These help in the way I reason and analyze things. It helps the way I perceive and interpret information”, she says.
Translating these things that I’ve read the way I perceive them into the problems that exist has helped me to provide actionable/smart solutions to problems. This has helped me move faster in my career. I am not wary of things that I do not know but I am big on asking questions”, she concludes.
According to her, building a career in the blockchain space is almost the same as building a career in almost every other space.
“You have to want it as desperately as you want anything. You have to be committed to learning because the web3 space changes and iterates so fast – new products and new activities every day. You have to be open to learning and be comfortable with the fact that you don’t know. Be ready to learn, think, and solve problems. Join communities and apply for the roles”, Mercy emmanuel explained
Read also: Israel freezing Hamas Binance accounts proves cryptos might not be that decentralized
Asked to suggest tips that make for a great web3 practitioner, Mercy Emmanuel emphasized the importance of sharing ideas with mentors and having a community of people who can listen and help mould one’s ideas.
For Mercy. this is just the beginning as the sky as still in view.
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