Last November, Art X Lagos collaborated with SuperRare to have one of the main NFT shows for African artists. Highlighting artists from Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, and elsewhere, the show has been portrayed by those in West Africa’s scene as a significant achievement causing worldwide to notice what African digital artists are doing.
For many, the show is a celebration of creative expression, offering the possibility to reach new heights in art and connection.
March was a busy month for NFTs in Africa. First, the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos held an introductory digital workshop on NFTs, moderated by Tomiwa Lasebikan, cofounder of Buycoins Africa. Then, a month later, the African Digital Art Network launched the NFT marketplace Nandi, as cofounder Chinedu Enekwe told Decrypt.
Nigerian artists and entrepreneurs, for example, are realizing the power of cryptocurrency to make a difference in a country that is facing so many challenges. The buzz around Reloading Nigeria’s crypto art exhibition has already helped it attract visitors from across the region. But, of course, this is just an awareness-raising event. Still, once people realize how easy it can be to trade in cryptocurrencies, we won’t have to wait long for more similar initiatives from Nigerians.
Interestingly, between July 2020 and June 2021, Africa saw $105.6 billion in digital currency installments, an approximately 1,200 percent increment over the earlier year, per a March report by blockchain information stage Chainalysis. In the meantime, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa were undeniably positioned in the best ten nations for crypto use.
However, despite the wide crypto adoption, Africa’s digital ecosystem has hurdles to jump over.
While most African countries do not officially recognize cryptocurrencies, they have not banned them either. However, regulators in Nigeria and several other countries do not allow the use of crypto transactions and ban financial institutions from accepting them. Other nations have issued guidelines that make it more difficult to use cryptocurrencies, but even still, many people have lost all of their cryptos since the ban.
While cryptocurrencies are technically banned in Nigeria, that doesn’t mean they can’t be used—and sold—for digital art. The bans have handicapped the digital art ecosystems in those countries. Still, while more tech-savvy Nigerians were able to get around the ban, Victor Ekwealor, a Nigerian tech journalist I spoke with, told me that it prevented most from investing in crypto art in the months after as people tried to follow what was happening elsewhere and googled search terms like “what is bitcoin” or “crypto art.”
Last November, Art X Lagos collaborated with SuperRare to have one of the main NFT shows for African artists. Highlighting artists from Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, and elsewhere, the show has been portrayed by those in West Africa’s scene as a significant achievement causing worldwide to notice what African digital artists are doing.
For many, the show is a celebration of creative expression, offering the possibility to reach new heights in art and connection.
March was a busy month for NFTs in Africa. First, the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos held an introductory digital workshop on NFTs, moderated by Tomiwa Lasebikan, cofounder of Buycoins Africa. Then, a month later, the African Digital Art Network launched the NFT marketplace Nandi, as cofounder Chinedu Enekwe told Decrypt.
Nigerian artists and entrepreneurs, for example, are realizing the power of cryptocurrency to make a difference in a country that is facing so many challenges. The buzz around Reloading Nigeria’s crypto art exhibition has already helped it attract visitors from across the region. But, of course, this is just an awareness-raising event. Still, once people realize how easy it can be to trade in cryptocurrencies, we won’t have to wait long for more similar initiatives from Nigerians.
Interestingly, between July 2020 and June 2021, Africa saw $105.6 billion in digital currency installments, an approximately 1,200 percent increment over the earlier year, per a March report by blockchain information stage Chainalysis. In the meantime, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa were undeniably positioned in the best ten nations for crypto use.
However, despite the wide crypto adoption, Africa’s digital ecosystem has hurdles to jump over.
While most African countries do not officially recognize cryptocurrencies, they have not banned them either. However, regulators in Nigeria and several other countries do not allow the use of crypto transactions and ban financial institutions from accepting them. Other nations have issued guidelines that make it more difficult to use cryptocurrencies, but even still, many people have lost all of their cryptos since the ban.
While cryptocurrencies are technically banned in Nigeria, that doesn’t mean they can’t be used—and sold—for digital art. The bans have handicapped the digital art ecosystems in those countries. Still, while more tech-savvy Nigerians were able to get around the ban, Victor Ekwealor, a Nigerian tech journalist I spoke with, told me that it prevented most from investing in crypto art in the months after as people tried to follow what was happening elsewhere and googled search terms like “what is bitcoin” or “crypto art.”
