From Oil and Gas to Blockchain Evangelist: Lucky Uwakwe Arisukwu’s Inspiring Journey in Nigeria and Africa | The Guardian Nigeria News

Lucky Uwakwe Arisukwu’s journey from being an oil and gas professional, to becoming a leading Blockchain and Web3 evangelist in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, is a captivating story of interest, dedication and passion for new technologies. His background was originally in the oil and gas sector, having studied petroleum technology and industrial chemistry in his bachelor’s degree.

He is our guest this week in our quest to motivate Africans to join the Blockchain revolution. MoveMint tracks his footsteps in this space, his contributions and how he perceives the future of our beautiful continent.

His deep insight into the Blockchain tool for government and business is worth your time. In addition, it is an inspiration for your journey to Blockchain and decentralized technologies.

Background and discover Blockchain
Lucky’s curiosity about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies was piqued when the news of Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht broke the Internet in 2013. As he learned over time that the US government was auctioning Bitcoin, he became increasingly curious, knowing that the government would only auction something if it has value.

This period coincided with when he wanted a career change and his love of new technology was the best way for him to go. He became more dedicated and started sharing his knowledge with different people and communities in 2015.

Lucky took further courses in the sector from institutions in the USA. He went on to study at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, as part of the first cohort of their Masters program in Blockchain Technology and Digital Currency.
Outreach and community building

In 2016, Nigeria had a sudden influx of Ponzi schemes using Crypto. As an industry leader, he became concerned about how Blockchain and Crypto had become synonymous with Ponzi schemes. He decided to dedicate a significant amount of his time and resources to teaching people that Crypto and Blockchain have nothing to do with Ponzi schemes like MMM, OneCoin and co. These efforts led the Central Bank of Nigeria to seek his expertise in 2016 to 2017, to help demystify the divide surrounding Blockchain technology.

Lucky became the Central Bank of Nigeria’s keynote speaker from 2016 to 2017, traveling with them across Nigeria to educate the public on what was happening in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Jos. Lucky, points out a very influential factor in the origin of building societies in Nigeria:
“It is noteworthy to say that an important community was formed by Mr. Adeolu Fadele, who happened to be a cryptographer by training and profession. We came together to build the first Blockchain community known as Cryptography Development Initiatives of Nigeria (CDIN). It later had the Blockchain Industry Association of Nigeria (BIAN) as one of its arms. CDIN became the first body that gave a wave for all of us to come together as enthusiasts to make more efforts around web3/Blockchain.”

Africa will not be left behind
Based on his experience, Nigeria and Africa will not be left behind in this technological development. Lucky has found that despite the government not supporting through creating deliberate policies that will drive growth in the space, young Africans are self-driven and want to engage by any means necessary; regardless of whether there is an incentive or not.

Lucky, for example, shared how he went around Nigeria and other parts of Africa to facilitate the adoption of Blockchain without any incentive from brands or companies. He happily promoted Blockchain brands and products such as Bittrex, BitX – now LUNO, Metamask and LocalBitcoin.

He talks about some of his efforts:

“I paid for halls, snacks and food, flight from one state to another and country, just to share our knowledge and history in Africa at that time and many more people have taken such an approach to give back to the continent through one form or the other. With this mindset, it is difficult for this technological advance to leave such a continent.”

In fact, the Blockchain pioneer registered people on some of these platforms as early as 2015 and 2016, despite having no direct connection to them. Lucky, CEO of Sabi Group, and a founding team member of the Wakanda INU, acknowledges that with the right knowledge, Africa can overcome misinformation about Blockchain-related technologies.

Politics and challenges in transition
Lucky maintains that with little government support, Africa will not be left standing. In Blockchain/Web3, African governments may not yet have made direct policies, but neither have they stifled the growth where private companies can thrive.

Lucky disagrees that there is a significant challenge for African companies to transition from Web2 to Web3, because the core of this technology is the same technology that powers web2. Any technically inclined person can easily switch with little training.

Nevertheless, what he sees as a challenge is that Web2 entities in Africa need to be better informed about other industries than the crypto aspect of things in web3. Education is the most promising way to transform from Web2 to the Internet of ownership.

He predicts:
“The future of politics on the continent is bright and no continent can best implement Blockchain other than Africa. We have less to lose if things go wrong and more to gain if technology goes right. We have fewer legacy systems or legacy infrastructure compared to other continents around the world.”

The future, Lucky claims, has no direction other than supporting spontaneous order. It is in Africa’s best interest for governments to encourage a self-regulatory policy (SRP), which is already in use in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Tunisia, Rwanda, etc.
What stands in the way of adoption

According to him, the obstacle to adoption in Africa is the hypocrisy of those in power. Our politicians campaign on promises to improve the economy and the lives of the people, yet overlook opportunities like Blockchain that give us transparency and efficiency.

Conscious efforts from both national authorities and regional bodies will drive penetration.
Lucky urged:

“I encourage the African Union and all member states to use the ACFTA as an opportunity to adopt Blockchain technology to achieve transparency, efficiency and security of trade. The AU and other regional bodies such as ECOWAS, SADC, EAC and others should push for a political framework that will guarantee that nothing stands in the way of new technologies.”

Again, Lucky supports adopting use cases such as governance, voting, agriculture, ownership management, logistics, supply chain, etc. Regardless of the sluggish efforts to promote adoption, the CEO of Sabi Group praised countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria for their gradual proactive policy measures.

Conclusion
Lucky’s efforts, among others, made Nigeria a hotspot for many Web3 projects related to Africa. This is a result of having done the initial bumpy work, paving the ground to lay the foundation and community upon which various Web3s can run or build a more prosperous business.