By Providence Ayanfeoluwa

The Metaverse market size has been projected to reach $800 billion by 2024 and as high as $1trillion according to a report, said President of Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce, NBCC, just as Metaverse and Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs experts said that the complexity of the digital space is making it difficult for government to come out with regulation to guide the space.

They said these at the NBCC Technology Group Event with the theme: “The Future and Challenges of NFTs and Metaverse in Africa” organised by NBCC in Lagos.

Metaverse platforms are a network of three-dimensional, 3D virtual environments centered on social interaction and communication, while NFTs is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger.  

Adeyemi said: “Experts see metaverse as a huge economic force that has a potential to significantly change the way we live, work and serve in years to come. Indeed, NFTs has a key value challenge, the metaverse market size has been projected to reach $800 billion by 2024 and as high as $1trillion in annual revenue according to a report recently. The concept of metaverse and NFTs have been fascinating over a period but gathered more attention during the onslaught of COVID-19 pandemic as the lockdown forced everyone to stay at home and share online spaces for longer period of time.”

Meanwhile, the experts who includes: Principal and Head Satoshi (Thinker) BBO Solicitors, Buki Ogunsakin; Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Vault Hill, Mr. Jimi Daodu; Chief Technical Officer, CTO and co-Founder HerVest, Mr. Yomi Ogunleye; and Creative/Content Media Associate, Bitnob, Mary Imasuen, said that awareness via education would fast track the adoption of metaverse and NFTs.

Ogunsakin said: “We currently do not have regulation in the space because there is lack of understanding, incoherence, it is quite complex. Prior to government regulation, we need to understand the technology. I am part of an organization called emerging technologies for emerging markets, where we are drawing up a report for government on tech policies to guide them on how best to regulate the space.

“There are a lot of researches that is going on, this is a global thing, it is not a Nigerian or African thing, even the US is yet to properly regulate this space that we are talking about,” she said.

Also, Imasuen said that Metaverse is a virtual aspect of the physical world, where people are able to do everything they do in the physical world in the virtual space, adding that Metaverse and NFTs make use of the technology called blockchain.

Her words: “It is going to take a while before the government implement some of these things, but one interesting thing is that we have private individuals and companies who have been making use of this technology right now, there are some companies especially fintech companies that have their data’s and transactions stored on the block chain, it is not publicized but that is happening, meaning that there are more efficient ways of them recording their transactions which makes it safe for their users.”

On his part, Daodu said: “Is not just about Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN wanting to regulate or know how they control. Technology always advances and people catch up. Africa catches up faster than the western world.”

For Ogunleye, he said that adoption of metaverse might take a while to achieve.

He said: “When we have the right regulation we can easily adopt it, the whole thing would take a while, but eventually we would get there. There are a lot of opportunities in this space, from 2021, the transactions has increased to over 100 percent.

“Aside the volatility of the market, not just the crypto market but the global market is taking a dip due to Russia Ukrain war. A major factor driving the growth of metaverse apart from digital art is the culture where we are working on extended reality. The earlier we adopt the better for us and the only way to adopt is by education especially among younger generation,” he said.