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Blockchain- The Solution To The Unpredictable Fate Of The Nigerian Fintech Space

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@mistakili
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The Nigerian govt through the CBN makes another attempt to stifle innovation in the Nigerian fintech space while unknowingly helping to foster crypto adoption in Nigeria as the latest clampdown on fintech applications forces Nigerian developers to start thinking about building outside the reach of Nigerian regulations set up to stifle the growth of the fintech space within the country. In hindsight it was inevitable.

Midday yesterday, an announcement was circulated on social media that the CBN(central bank Nigeria) secured the order to freeze top fintech applications that provided people with the access to participate in foreign investments like stocks and other initiatives. The cry of the govt is that these applications are helping Nigerians take money out of circulation within the country and thereby adding to the devaluing naira. The same government that gave them the license to operate in the first place.

It is one thing to build in a bad regulatory environment, what’s even worse is building in an unpredictable regulatory environment. After scaling the hurdles of getting your startup registered and accredited, someone from the govt can just wake up on the wrong side of their bed and receive a court order to confiscate your funds and shut down your startup. This is a global issue.

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This is the regulatory fate of Nigeria, anyone subjecting their fintech business to such fate is now irresponsible as it is akin to building on quicksand especially given the options available.

Options that exist in the Blockchain space. Decentralized Blockchains provide the environment and tools needed to build Fintech applications that are beyond jurisdictional regulatory reach. The government cannot wake up one morning and say Bitcoin shouldn’t operate in Nigeria, it’s impossible, they’ll have to shut down the entire internet for that to happen. This is the sort of resilience fintech applications need.

Banks are the weakest links in Fintech, as long as the fintech service provider funnels funds through the banks, they are subjected to being regulated by the Central Bank and we all know what that leads to.

Building Fintech applications on Decentralized blockchain enables the Fintech service providers to inherit the characteristics of cryptocurrency which gives full ownership and control of funds to the users of the application, it also provides the service with the ability to incorporate an unimaginable number of investment classes through smart contracts.

It is free and open to anyone to access. It exists on the internet. The application becomes non Jurisdictional and will not need to answer to broke jurisdictional laws. This is how we emancipate ourselves from financial slavery. It also exposes the fintech application to foreign market in terms of users and investors as anyone from anywhere in the world will be able to participate.

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An application like Safemoon runs on an old African business model but with a smart contract and few modifications and had people rushing to it, not to mention Startups like PiggyVest, Risevest, etc that provide novel investment opportunities. Building on the blockchain also exposes the novelty in these applications and places them on a global scale. The benefits are immense.

It's not just about being free from the regulatory space, its about providing global solutions as well as opportunities through making use of the tools we have so that we can provide a better life for ourselves and the coming generations irrespective of what the powers that be may want, as they have shown that they don’t have the best interest of the general populace at heart.

The rate of Bitcoin P2P transaction in Nigeria has seen a tremendous growth since the CBN banned banks from facilitating transactions that are crypto related, the wave is unstoppable, people are embracing Bitcoin to edge inflation from the dwindling economy, people are participating in global financial activities through cryptocurrency.

It is high time for Nigerian fintech space to join in the race and begin to harness the tools created by the world of global participants for global participants and leave the boundaries of their physical environment through their digital passports, the internet. Let’s set the world free!

Thank you for reading.

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta