Lars Seier Christensen, a Senior Investment Banker, visits Nigeria to Deeply Understand her Tech Landscape, Invest and Offer Solutions.
Lars Seier Christensen is a global pioneer in FX and derivatives trading, having co-founded the online trading and investment platform Saxo Bank in 1992. He served as co-CEO of Saxo Bank for more than 20 years. In addition to his over 30 years of financial and banking experience, most interestingly, he’s taken the role of chairman of a Swiss non-profit organisation, Concordium Foundation, educating and facilitating the adoption of blockchain compliance and its next-generation blockchain network. He seeks to understand the technology atmosphere in Africa, specifically Nigeria, to apply his wealth of experience to alleviate some of the present pressing problems.
Without mincing words, Africa is one of the first continents where the burgeoning new internet technology – the blockchain – finds most applications. The intersection of factors that affirms this claim is glaringly conspicuous; Talk about the teeming population of youths, millennials or GenZ’s, talk about the penetration of smartphone technology and the classic internet, talk about the problems remittance, the exploding number of the unbanked and even the frail and corrupt organisational structures. Africa ranks just about the highest amongst other continents in all of these. Anyone with even a two-hour-crash-course knowledge base of blockchain technology can envision how blockchain technology is pertinent in solving these African-centric issues.
If this is one of the reasons Nigeria is regarded as the giant of Africa, we can’t tell. Still, it’s beyond evident that these mostly problematic factors are gigantic in the economic behemoth of the continent. Nigeria, estimated to have a population of over 200 million, has one of the youngest populations globally, and it is regarded as Africa’s ICT market. Yet, the foreign transactions limit is being strangled, forcing its young population to seek alternative means such as the ones made possible by blockchain technology. While the policymakers are neither unaware nor indifferent to this, their efforts to provide a better offering in a compliant digital currency have not yielded any results. Multiple launch attempts have failed. The silence that now surrounds the launch of its e-naira suggests helplessness.
Although they’ve tried to ward off other non-compliant cryptocurrencies without providing a compelling alternative, its tech-savvy population has found alternative means to go about their daily business. Many would argue it is almost impossible to cease.
Lars Seier Christensen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/larsseier
Concordium on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConcordiumNet
Lars Seier Christensen believes he has the experience to profer the solutions to Nigeria’s challenges, especially in the financial technology sector. He’ll be coming to discuss, learn and “shake hands” with significant stakeholders in the country across industries.
Lars will be in Nigeria for two days, from the 13th to 14th of April, discussing the big shots of the general tech ecosystem, including financial, commercial, and web3 technologies. He also aims to seal partnerships with the top dogs at the helm of affairs in the banking industry and policymakers to deeply understand the country’s pain points of the general technology industry whilst educating them on the offerings of Concordium and the possibilities that could be unlocked. Lars will also welcome interviews with the mass and crypto media to inform viewers and listeners on some of the notions and ideas he proposes to set up frameworks for a better financial process that seamlessly fits into their everyday lives and businesses while still staying private and compliant.
He welcomes innovators to share ideas with him. During his brief stay, he’d like to meet with many innovators in the country to build transformative technologies. Besides an intriguing tech meetup event, he’ll also be meeting with some of the founders and CEOs of giant tech companies. If you’d like to speak with Lars for any reason, investment, partnership or collaboration, you can apply here before 12th April 2022.
Lars believes there are countless opportunities in the technology landscape of the African giant. He seeks to understand the space’s atmosphere further and collaborate with the builders, bringing his wealth of financial experience and network to implement sustainable economic solutions. Let’s see if Lars brings Nigeria’s fintech up to par.
Read more:
Can Cryptocurrency Help Nigerians Gain Financial Freedom?
Mnuchin Calls for Crypto Regulatory Talk At G20 Summit
