At Technext Coinference 2023, with the theme, Disruptive Tech: New Frontiers, New Opportunities, Yele Bademosi, the CEO and co-founder of Nigerian blockchain company Nestcoin spoke about the importance of the blockchain in creating broader financial services and giving Africans new opportunities to participate in the global financial markets.
“Your geographical location should not determine the financial services that are available to you,” Bademosi said.
The session, a fireside chat titled “Building Africa’s next blockchain unicorn: wins, challenges and opportunities ahead,” moderated by Technext’s Business Chief, Anderson Ozakpo, comes at a time when funding for the crypto ecosystem has become dire and prices of assets have been fluctuating erratically.
“There is still a lot of hope and that is why we are still having conversations at events like this,” Ozakpo assured.
Bademosi also spoke about the focus of the ecosystem in the last few years by political leaders as evidence of a bright future for crypto in Africa. “Africa will begin to have more open regulatory fairpoint that African businesses will use to produce innovative solutions,” he said.
Even at this time when funding has been stunted, Bademosi is optimistic about the future of the ecosystem. For him, the marker of hope is in the valuation and utility of the industry and the assets. “The price is the indicator of value,” he said. “Africa is responsible for 3 per cent of the blockchain global market.” This contribution underscores the importance of the region at a time of grave economic upheaval.
Yele Bademosi on the need to be resilient
The current AI boom also presents the resilient spirit of the African ecosystem.
“If you look at AI and ChatGPT, the truth is that decades ago, we had what was called the AI winter when funding for the ecosystem all but paused,” he said.
But in the past few months, a wave of AI boom has awakened funding for the space, leading many startups to over a billion-dollar valuations.
But for the ecosystem to remain, Bademosi stressed that leaders must remain steadfast in their goals for wanting to build in the ecosystem. For him, it’s a passion to “accelerate Africa’s transition to accept stablecoin.”
The CEO further advised crypto enthusiasts not to be discouraged by current trends and to find strength in their initial purpose for getting into the space in the first place. “As an entrepreneur, builder or developer in the space, you need to have your ‘Why.’ Whatever drives you has to be something that is so fundamental to your being, that regardless of the challenges, you’ll keep going,” he said.
