 A survey conducted by finder.com in 2021 revealed that Nigeria ranked sixth among 20 countries in the world that have adapted non-fungible tokens NFTs. The reason for this is not far-fetched. As a result of the continued devaluation of the Naira, Nigerians are constantly on the lookout for new ways to stay above inflation. One of such ways appears to be delving into the acquisition and sale of digital assets, NFTs. Given the rapid growth of the NFT ecosystem in Nigeria, what do Nigerians need to know and how can they be protected? Welcome to Business Insight and Plus TV Africa. I am Justin Akadohi. What Nigeria faces increasingly in 2022 is crippling starvation that is low economic growth coupled with high inflation. The scientists are already there for all to see. For this week, let's take a look at stories which made headlines in the world of business in Nigeria. The National Bureau of Statistics NBS says Nigerians spend more on transportation in March. According to the report, the average fare for a single journey one-way ticket by air passengers increased by 4.43 percent monthly from 44,825 Naira in February to 46,810 Naira in March. This report covered various categories, bus journey within the city per drop constant bus journey into city, state routes, chart per person, airfare change for specified routes single journey, journey by motorcycle per drop, and waterway passenger transport. The report stated that airfare rose by 28.26 percent year-on-year to 36,495 Naira from March last year. Governor Babaji Desongolu revealed that work on the Blue Line Rail project was at 90 percent completion. He said that the state government is on track at completing work on both the Blue and Rail lines rail projects, which are intercity to strengthen the intermodal transportation system. According to him, contractors are working seven days a week so that residents will ride trains on the rail by the first quarter of 2023. He said that the Blue Line rail would be running on electric trucks with electric motor vehicle, EMV, and therefore want residents to keep off the train lines and ensure they don't walk on it. Bakers under the aegis of the Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria said they would increase the price of bread. The president of the association Emmanuel Onora said the increase became inevitable due to soaring cost of productions. This increment is across all variants. The federal government has concluded plans to initiate a new program called Investing in Digital and Creative Enterprises with over $600 million commitment to support young people engaging in skills development. National Coordinator's Social Investment Programme Humar Bindir revealed this at the fifth National Tourism Transportation Summit and Expo in Abuja, saying the program is aimed at training youth through several skills acquisitions. Bindir also urged the youth to grab the opportunity with all sense of commitment and steadfastness for the overall good of the country in its march to industrial and economic greatness. Now those were the stories that made headlines this week. Moving on, despite the growth of NFT among Nigerians, it remains a novel concept. A large number of the population are still unaware of its operations. Also, the government is yet to provide an elaborate and uniform regulation to guide its usage in Nigeria. Rumair Dominic is a certified blockchain architect and cryptocurrency expert. He is also an executive member of the stakeholders in Blockchain Association of Nigeria C-Band. He is the MDCEO of Verm Nigeria Company. He joins us now to share insights on this conversation. Thank you for joining us, Rumair Dominic. Thank you very much. Let's talk about this particular development which is the NFTs are. What do we really need to know as people? It is a bit novel in Nigeria, are there risks involved? Yes, of course. They are major with associated with this particular NFTs space. And the truth is NFT is the latest data trend and it is rapidly gaining attention after the largest economy. It is a non-fungible token that is unique. And it is not interchangeable units of data. In the sense that like the Naira notes you have, there are so many people that have that Naira note on the street. Take for example, the Bitcoin has a currency which is a digital asset. There are a lot of people that have that particular Bitcoin. And that particular Bitcoin can be split into smaller units. But in the case of NFTs, we are trying to define something that no other person has. So if you look at this particular two-use case that I just made mention of, these two different classes of items, people have them. But for NFTs, it is just one of that particular item. And just one that is available and cannot be split into smaller units. So let's take for example, you have customized cars. Maybe they make only seven in the world. You can definitely say that those particular types of cars are things that you cannot find in any other place around the world. So those particular type of items becomes non-fungible, which means they cannot be recreated easily. Just like this particular moment that we are having, we might never have this particular type of moment anytime again. But it can also be a real-life experience, just like we have on this particular call. And at this particular time now, we are sharing different experiences together. The recording of this particular experience becomes an NFT-like item. So you can upload this particular thing. And if I have a large following, you have a large following, someone that is emotionally attached to this particular recording can now say, Hi, I love this particular content. I love this particular app. I want to own it digitally and be the only one that can own it. And then be able to monetize it, which means that if that person makes an offer and then you sell the intellectual property to that person, it becomes a non-fungible intellectual property. So it actually transcends across both owning digital art, applying your intellectual property, and being able to also feel, apply emotions to which are moments that are captured as NFTs. All right, Dominic, let's try and bring it closer home. When you talk of NFTs, what comes to mind is more intellectual property, the arts, maybe the entertainment. But in Nigeria, we still have issues of copywriting and other laws associated with it. How do we bring all of that to the picture? So with the issue of copywriting, one of the properties of blockchain is the fact that it is immutable, which means that whatever is placed on the blockchain cannot be altered. And what is the reason for this particular copywriting? People try to take things and alter it and change data and try to put one or two things. So for the case of copywriting, what we can see is once artists now start putting their work on the blockchain, making them NFTs, they can be able to have a control in the same way with demand and supply. One of the major reasons that accounts for the continuous price increase in other digital assets is the supply and demand factor. So once they put it on this particular blockchain, you cannot say, okay, I want to have only 50,000 copies of this particular type of art, this particular type of music, just like we have seen in Taylor Swift and all of those other global artists do. You want to have 50,000 copies of this song as an NFT asset on the blockchain and we're only going to sell that. And you cannot find that anywhere else in the world. The artist is also able to continually end realities on the sale of those particular words, NFTs. So right now, there's a high possibility that if you make your music, you put it at a labor market, maybe when mama okay is done or papa John is done, they might not come and give you realities because they actually dubbed that particular words, that particular song or that particular content. But with NFTs and them being on the blockchain, you continue to end realities for life and it cannot be duplicated. You see, digital as it is, there is only one particular technology that cobs what is called double spending, which means that whatever is sent to you cannot be retained by the other party that is sending it. So that's one of the things that can actually make NFTs to be able to cove that particular problem of copywriting. All right, right now, there seems to be a very huge demand, huge market for NFTs, not just in Nigeria or Africa, as it is really evolving, but also around the world. Tell us more about the demand and supply risk for when you talk about currencies in Nigeria, we'll talk about devaluation. But for NFTs, really, are there risk of maybe it coming down in value or any of that? Yes, just like with every economy, except they are all risk associated with it. Now, the in-currency, okay, there are a couple of things the average Nigerian needs to know actually before you get into NFTs, need to have a little knowledge of cryptocurrencies and have a little knowledge of DeFi. And then you use these cryptocurrencies, which is now the currency of the internet to what to purchase these NFTs, right? And when you use these particular currencies to purchase these NFTs, the thing is, is these currencies, some of them are liquid across a lot of markets. But when you purchase these NFTs, there are some challenges in the sense that some of these NFTs, maybe you cannot sell them anymore, in the sense that the marketplace, after buying that particular NFT, there's no strong utility for that particular NFT. And the marketplace to be able to sell it is now not available. Well, you use the digital currency to buy it, right? Your hope is that after buying it with that digital currency, you might be able to exchange that NFT for another value. But in this case now, you are unable to do that. So that now defeats what the liquidity of that particular NFT. So that's one major challenge that is affected with the around the NFT after using the digital currencies to what to buy it. I would like you to repeat the part B of your question so that we can put it on. Okay. You will agree with me that NFTs are relatively new in Nigeria. And when it comes to regulation, the CBN is quick to waging its sledgehammer on things like that when it comes to digital asset. The case of cryptocurrency is one that is still very fresh on our minds. Don't you think we should be looking at the direction of regulation so Nigerians can actually be prepared and actually be protected as it were? Actually, in terms of regulation, I would say yes, we should be looking at regulatory policies to be able to ensure that we have a safe marketplace for the NFT users in Nigeria. You see, Nigeria, some of the statistics that came to my table as one of the executive members of CBAN saw that Nigerians, we are about 30.7% of Nigerians interacting with the NFT world. What would I add about the global population which we are having into the average of the global population which is about 10.7% which means that the global marketplace of the world for NFTs, we have majority of them in Nigeria. So why would I say no to regulation coming into this particular market space? I mean, we have over a by $269 billion locked in total valuation of this particular digital asset. And we see that Nigerian art creators are using NFTs to leverage the shift of art to the digital world because that's why development programs on cryptocurrency they're increasing their networks while at it. Nigerian regulators will continue to divide policies that will keep up with the technology. And we see that that's why the lack of regulation. In 2018, we saw one of Nigeria's prominent artists Justin Igway, he submitted his work during the 2018 Iterial Blockchain Summit. And during the COVID period, he sold some of those NFTs because he had already learned how to win some of those NFTs and he sold them for a huge amount of money. We also see a lot of other Nigerians like them like Gray Shadow, we also see Nigerians like Odiantobee, Oindamola, Oikemi, they are making so much, so much weight in the NFTs world. We have this regulation and you see that Nigerians are using it to end foreign exchange into the country and they are using it to interact with global finance. So regulation should come and quickly address some of the challenges that we are having, some of the challenges that we are having, especially with the marketplace, with the liquidity that is around the NFTs. And then some NFTs that have perceived value. And you want to see perceived value in the sense that an influencer can talk about an NFT because one of the challenges too is that the skill set around understanding this particular concept is not also available in the country. So an influencer can come talk about an NFT and people might have a perceived value on it. And maybe why that particular NFT does not have utility, does not have a roadmap, does not have where it is going to. And then Nigerians would ape in, which means they will buy in, and then maybe they will lose their money in the process because they will not be able to work. So I mean exchange that NFT for value. And what do you call an asset? An asset is anything that has a lot of liquidity around it. Which means if you have an NFT that you are classifying as a digital asset, you want to also put in liquidity that particular digital asset to what? To cash. And since you cannot do it, you might not be blaming the regulators or the governments for not putting in enough policies to be able to ensure that they safeguarded your money while you are trying to do it. And I think that this regulation we try to do is to open up the market space for Nigerians. Currently we have the dollar exchange, I think $20 per month, right? Or there are about some banks less than $20. There are NFTs that are worth $1,000, $300, $500,000, $500. So how then do you want Nigerians to be part of this global economy with the limitation in bottleneck or payment? Then Nigerians will be missing out of it. Then Nigerians cannot join the third world, this particular first world countries in the terms of technological revolution that is going on with NFTs. And then, well, this regulation will ensure that they increase the limits for Nigerians to be able to spend effects and be able to get access to what? To the best digital collectibles in the world. So I think regulation should come in quickly to be able to address all of these things that can actually make Nigeria, which is a giant of Africa, to start taking a backseat in this large technological revolution. All right, so let's talk about the future of all of this now, NFTs and blockchain. It seems to be gaining a whole lot of momentum at such a rapid space in Nigeria. So do you see this particular technology, this digital asset becoming the order of the day or the main currency the Nigerians will be trading on over time? Yes, of course. Like I said, one of the go-to place, right? One of the major challenges is the fact that Nigerians don't have a skill set for a go-to place to be able to learn about this to now ensure that we keep attracting a lot of foreign revenue that is coming into the country now from these different technological interactions. So the future actually goes a lot of right hope for us. As you know, I'm an author in this particular technological space or in this particular niche. One of the go-to place to really learn about all of this is VRAM.co, which at that particular VRAM.co you see a lot of, we have about 20 blockchain, 20 different blockchain courses, which is about one or seven different modules that addresses this particular skill set. Takes you from one step to another to now see that the future we're talking about is one that is mastered by Nigerians and one that we are able to have enough engineers, enough blockchain tech, saving people that can actually interact with tech, develop business solutions and ensure that we have good use cases. Let's take for example now, NFTs are unique identities, right? Let's say we want to take NFTs to start solving like ticketing problems in Nigeria. You know, in Nigeria you have fake tickets that they sell in some of these concerts. So for the artist, they can say like, in the video can say I'm issuing out, instead of me, he wants to sell 10,000 tickets for maybe one particular arena. You issue out VIP tickets for your NFT, maybe we issue out 2,000 VIP NFTs. We issue out 3,000 VIP less of that particular one and then all of them are tied to the blockchain. Whenever they get to your event hall, they show their NFTs. They know that this person is a VIP, this person is entitled to this, this person is entitled to that. And this is the future in terms of what? Ensuring that people do not counterfeit this particular and forge things on the internet. Then let's talk about digital identity or let's talk about the fact that this NFT, if you, if one of the future opinions that some of these particular NFTs can give you access to specific communities that will now, okay, so before some people used to be part of some grocery clubs, shell clubs and all of those things. Now this particular, different, this particular centralized organization before, they can go into decentralized autonomous organization and they can start using NFTs to be able to manage those particular access points. So you have your community, you issue them out some NFTs and then only people that have those NFTs, it's not like the key of the internet, it's only people that have those things can access some special rights. Let's say like for a station now, for me to gain some special access to maybe a discount on adverts, maybe discount on one or two programs that you air. Maybe you guys did 100 NFTs at a point in time and you gave it to your top 10 tech guys and you said this top 10 tech guys from every dividend that this company will earn or whatever value they keep putting in this company, they will keep earning something and as fast as we have those NFTs, we become shareholders and value-coded. All right, Dominic. All right, Dominic, we must say a very big thank you to you for joining us. Let me take that again. All right, Dominic, we must say a very big thank you to you for joining us to share all of the insights concerning NFTs. It is actually a very wide topic of discussion and we must have to bring you back to the true more like in future. Thank you once again, Dominic, Rume, Isa, the certified blockchain architect and he joined us on the show today. Thank you yet again. All right, thank you for having me. Have a nice day. All right, away from all of that, the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, I can comfort Eytayo, says the body will continue to educate members with relevant trainings, skills and technology to meet up with the evolve in global trends. Eytayo said it's on the sideline of her official visit to the Lagos and District Society details in this package. Members of the Lagos and District Society welcomed their 57th president to Odey there. Although the gathering is a relaxed one, issues affecting the accountancy profession take center stage. Top on the front burner is the relevance of accountants joining the profession and their lack of employability. However, all hope is not lost. The ICANN bus flung by other executives hints of a silver lining. We are establishing ICANN Academy for instance where we can also put them through the necessary training apart from their own professional continuous training. Then we also have entrepreneurship initiative which we have started already. The aspect of that is to also those who want to go into practice to make them see what it looks like teach them the business aspect as well as the skill aspect. So most of them know that the students, I mean ICANN is one of the most difficult exams people think they pass to pass. So when you see anybody passed ICANN, ICANN examination is so happy because you know the rigor of the examination processes. Now transferring that same zeal and what you have acquired into the field is not a challenge ICANN is having. Now these may not be the best of times for the profession. As accountants are being challenged not only by the harsh economic circumstances of the nation but also by pieces of regulations. They speak of how gaps in the company and Allied Matters Act camera affect your practice. The guiding rules of members of this day of guidance are accuracy and integrity. In that sense accountants does what is sought. It's meant to defend the both the profession and the organization it works for. Safeguard its assets and ensure that the resources of the organizations are safeguarded. Now some of the jobs that are supposed to be done by accountants for instance some of the provisions that talks about if your turnover is below 25 million you are not supposed to pay tax. Good, good, good, very good provision. I mean to be to be tax friendly to the to businesses but now that means if you're not going to pay tax that you don't prepare an account. The ICANN president also condemned the continuous disregard for professionals in the civil service recruitment process. And that's the size of the show. Business Insight returns same time next week. I am Justin Al-Kadounyeh. Many thanks for watching.