Financial Services Can Attract $10bn Through Blockchain – NITDA

The financial services sector in Nigeria has the capacity to attract about $10bn to the nation’s economy through adequate deployment of blockchain technology, the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency said on Thursday.

Director-General, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, told journalists in Abuja that it was based on this that the agency resolved to work out measures that would enable the country to get between $6bn and $10bn from blockchain technology.

Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat.

A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Stakeholder Engagement for the Review of the National Blockchain Adoption Strategy, Inuwa said Nigeria was strategically positioned in Africa to benefit from blockchain technology.

He said, “Considering our youthful population and our strategic position in Africa, we are looking at how we can get at least $6bn to $10bn in blockchain technology by the year 2030.

“This is doable because if you look at our payment and financial services sector, it is very huge and it is strategically placed to capture this value.”

The NITDA boss said a recent publication by PriceWaterCoopers, a renowned research firm, revealed that in 10 years, blockchain technology would contribute $1.76tn to global Gross Domestic Product.