Expert in the cryptocurrency industry has said it provides a new form of wealth creation that is bigger than what the country has ever experienced for Nigeria’s younger generation, Hanu Fejiro, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Patricia, a cryptocurrency exchange company, stated.

He explained that with crypto trading, NFTs, and gaming guilds where people play games and earn money, there’s a major shift in wealth creation and huge opportunities for the younger generation.

Speaking at the 2022 Technext Conference titled “Blockchain and DeFi – Beyond the hype”, the CEO said the Federal Government needs to pay adequate attention to the blockchain industry and come up with acceptable policies to ensure its success for the nation’s benefits.

According to him, Nigeria is currently ranked fourth globally in terms of cryptocurrency transactions with over 22 million Nigerians effectively trading in the market despite the ban by the Central Bank of Nigeria 

He said “Today, Nigeria is the fourth country in the world with the most crypto transactions. And that’s not a joke.

“You know, America is leading, but America has regulation. America has had regulation for the past 2 to 3years now. Now, Nigeria with no regulation is 4th in the world with about 22 million crypto users.

“Crypto is too huge an industry not to pay attention to really, and I think that the government needs to get aligned. There needs to be a handshake.”

In addition, Fejiro said that the Federal Government needs to support this industry and allow it to grow, to enable them to access the potential opportunities it has to offer to not only the citizens but the economy of the country at large.

He said, “They say the youths are the future. What are the youths doing today? Music, sports, and crypto. There needs to be government support for these industries to grow.

“There needs to be free trade zones made especially for crypto; there is need for public policies.

“We need to move away from the idea of fossil fuel in terms of crude oil and focus on human capital as our main resource right now.

“Now, everybody wants to go to Canada, go to the UK, we are losing the most important thing that we have which is human capital. So the minute we can turn things around as a government, Nigeria will become the real giant of Africa.”