With ISA 2025, Nigeria Joins 4th Industrial Revolution

*Opens window for digital asset market boom 

*To sign a ‘Digital R&D’ with China 

*Pact with China yields over $30bn investment commitment  

Sunday Ehigiator

Experts and policy makers at the ‘Digital Asset Markets Strategy Masterclass Series’ held over the weekend in Lagos, have opined that the Nigeria’s new Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 recently signed into law by Present Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has placed the country as a major player in the 4th Industrial Revolution, and created a regulatory framework for digital assets market boom which will ‘revolutionise’ its economy, create wealth and lead the pack in blockchain technology.

This is just as the Director-General of the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership (NCSP), Mr. Joseph Tegbe, revealed that Nigeria has received over $30 billion in investment commitments and 300 expressions of interest from different Chinese companies within the last five months and will soon sign a ‘Digital R&D’ with China to enable a direct conversion of Naira to Chinese Yuan, thereby reducing the country’s dependency on the Dollar.

According to him, “The relationship with China is focused on development rather than trade.
“The overview of our objectives in the Nigerian-China Strategic Partnership is to drive infrastructure development, scale up investments from China, strengthen Nigerian-China trade and economic relations, promote knowledge and economic transparency, and also advance cultural exchanges between the two nations.

“We all know that today, with the evolving trends, the new frontier of the world is the East, led by China.
“If I share some statistics with you, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which was launched in 2013, has seen substantial investments coming from China.

“Total community engagement between China and the rest of the world, between 2013 and today, starts at $1.175 trillion. Construction contracts with the rest of the world, from China, stand at $573 billion.
“Over $300 billion has been invested across key infrastructure projects, like seaports, railways, airports, and power plants across the globe.

These projects are mostly financed by China’s State Department, funded by Chinese banks.
“Africa has become the largest recipient of Chinese engagement, overtaking Middle Eastern countries, and this presents an opportunity for Nigeria to be a bigger recipient of Belt and Road Initiatives.

“Digital R&D has become very productive. It’s increasing the legitimacy and regulation of digital assets.
“Because when you have a country like China, which is state-backing digital transactions, it means it produces a lot of opportunities for digital assets.

“It also creates competition with all the stablecoins and reduces the dependency on U.S. dollars. Countries that have signed on to Digital R&D today are doing transactions faster than they’ve ever done before.
“Nigeria is about to sign on to Digital R&D. If we’re working on that and agree before the end of the year, we will join that group. What it has also done is that it has transformed the cross-border payments between countries.

“We are currently talking to two commercial banks in China, setting up commercial activities in Nigeria, and working vice versa. If this happens with Digital R&D, it means you don’t have to take Naira to Dollar to Yuan. You take Naira straight to Yuan, or Yuan directly to Naira.
“That’s a lot of implications. It lessens the pressure of the U.S. dollar, effectively. It makes businesses faster and swifter for us.

“To date, my office has received over 300 investment expressions of interest in Nigeria from Chinese companies in five months. We have commitments of over $30 billion from Chinese investors.
“Every week, I meet with over 35 to 50 Chinese investors in Nigeria. Several Nigerians have gone to the Canton Fair, which is happening in China this week.

“The Chinese ambassador told me that over 1,000 Nigerians have applied to participate in that Canton Fair, which means China, which is the next frontier, is a close partner in development, investment, and capital markets.”
The Masterclass, organised by the African Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Institute in collaboration with Anabel Capital and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), brought together capital market operators, policymakers, investors, and tech-savvy youths to explore the future of digital assets in Africa.

Speaking at the event, Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, revealed that the state was set to monetise idle assets and raise a green bond to fund infrastructural development within the state.
According to Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Commissioner of Finance, Abayomi Oluyomi, “We are developing a securitisation policy to monetise and liquefy our idle assets.

“These are assets we used to call ‘Idle assets’. Now we want to use them to get liquidity to finance our infrastructure needs. In the next two to three months, we will be coming to the market to securitise some of them.”
He added that Lagos, as a pace-setting state, is set to raise a green bond to fund sustainable infrastructure projects, becoming the first sub-national government in Nigeria to do so.  

Highlighting the state’s support for digital innovation, he said: “We are solidly behind the digital asset space and putting all the political will available to ensure its success. Regulatory bodies like the SEC are not here to block progress. They are here to help innovation grow safely by creating clear rules.

“Digital assets are no longer futuristic ideas. They are changing how we trade, invest and build financial systems. Let’s create safe spaces to test new fintech products and teach small businesses how blockchain can improve supply chains.”
Earlier in his address, Global Investment Advisor, and the Masterclass Convener, Dr Nicholas Okoye, noted: “The digital transformation that is driving the fourth industrial revolution has touched every industry and is projected to create monumental fortunes for wealth-conscious investors, institutions, Nations, and sub-nationals.

“In this regard, I believe that the most strategic ecosystem of this digital transformation has got to be ‘Digital Asset Markets, which includes investment in cryptocurrencies as well as the tokenisation (digitisation) of traditional asset classes.

“The proposed full adoption of ‘Digital Asset Markets’ in Nigeria’s capital markets and subsequently across Africa is going to be a game changer for wealth creation and economic growth sustainability. In addition, it will completely redefine the future of African finance, investment and capital market industries.
“It will provide a golden opportunity for us Africans to create wealth for all our people, regardless of their vocation and regardless of wherever on the planet they may live.

“We expect that these digital asset markets will provide, for the first time in Nigeria and Africa’s history, a rare and unique opportunity for a true measure and a true reflection of Nigeria’s and subsequently Africa’s entire wealth position.
“We are committed to ensuring that our African people will be the owners and operators of this new digital asset markets ecosystem, as our digital assets will be listed as well as traded on the blockchain and they will be tied to underlying physical assets, which will reduce the volatility that is witnessed and prevalent in most other digital markets across the World. This is very powerful and nothing short of revolutionary.”