Asked to touch upon the plans, Binance’s West & East Africa director Nadeem Anjarwalla stated in a press release: ​​​​​​“As we continue to support blockchain adoption across the African continent, Binance is keen to collaborate with the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority [the regulator overseeing the Lekki Free Zone] to establish a virtual free zone with the aim of generating long-term economic growth through digital innovation. We look forward to sharing key details when plans have been finalized.”

That a Nigerian authorities company signed off on a crypto partnership in any respect is shocking. While Nigeria is among the world’s greatest international marketplaces for crypto, rating eleventh total in crypto analysis agency Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index Top 20 in 2022, the nation’s regulators have usually been hostile. The Central Bank of Nigeria banned banks from enabling cryptocurrency transactions in February 2021.

Adesoji Adesugba, CEO of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, stated in a press release that the partnership with Binance seeks to “engender flourishing Virtual Free Zones to take advantage of a near trillion-dollar virtual economy in blockchains and digital economy.”

“It’s clear that the world is going crypto,” says Edu. “And Nigeria can’t lock that door forever.” Incoming president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s manifesto seems to echo this, saying that his administration will “reform government policy to encourage the prudent use of blockchain technology.”

While creating its digital infrastructure is Itana’s essential preoccupation proper now, constructing the bodily metropolis won’t be easy, judging from the expertise of close by improvement tasks. Eko Atlantic, a non-public metropolis challenge constructed on sand “recovered” from the ocean outdoors of Lagos, has made faltering progress since 2009.

The Lekki Free Zone has itself been trailed by controversies over the alleged displacement of local communities to make manner for the challenge. Local residents say greater than a dozen villages within the Ibeju-Epe space, the place the free commerce zone was established, have been unilaterally reclaimed by the federal government, some to make manner for a not-yet-operational oil refinery which started construction in 2016.

“They said they wanted to use the land for revenue purposes, that there was no refinery in Lagos state, so they were planning for our children,” Otunba Ladipo Olusanya  Adeokun, a group chief of the Idashon Community in Ibeju Lekki, says. “What about us who will bear the children, are we not going to plan for our future? Where’s the money we are going to use to take care of our children?”

Communities across the free port space have limited access to power, whereas Lagos itself suffers from a crippling housing shortage. Building a brand new, high-end group like Itana isn’t more likely to resolve these issues within the close to time period.

“What I can tell is that it’s not going to be cheap,” says Yakubu Aliyu Bununu, lecturer within the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria.“If you look at the purchasing power of an average Nigerian, it’s going to take them years and years to be able to earn an income that would allow them to live in Eko Atlantic, or Alaro City, or any of the cities springing up in that area,” says Adunbi. (Alaro City, the place Itana is because of be situated, advertises residences priced from $65,950; the typical yearly income for Nigerians was $2,080 in 2021.)

But Aboyeji says Itana’s aim isn’t to cloister the prosperous in air-conditioned high-rises. “We’re not just trying to get together a bunch of opulent, rich people into a space, right? What we’re trying to do is pull together a productive young population.”

Right now, the 72,000-square-meter plot of land that might be Itana sits empty. What was as soon as a swamp has now been crammed in with orange sand, ready for the primary foundations to be laid. But, as Aboyeji insists, the challenge is all about potential, about being a vessel for the stressed ambition of Nigeria’s tech scene.

“We’re not some foreigners that are trying to conquer Nigeria. We are Nigerians trying to figure out, within Nigeria, a place where we can operate our businesses and build for the world,” he says. “I think we will be giving a lot of lessons to the West on that.”