Hello Nathaniel, and hello felllow Dash community members:
Nairaex is a large Bitcoin exchange in Nigeria: https://nairaex.com/
Nathaniel, have you ever thought of contacting Nairaex, perhaps forming a partnership with them, and encouraging them to offer Dash? (in parallel with Bitfxt. I'm not sure if nairaex and bitfxt are directly competitors, but maybe it would be good for both if Nairex added Dash?)
I would actually love to help with this, but I only come to Nigeria on occasion, so it would actually be much harder for me to talk to Nairaex than someone with "boots on the ground".
Fellow Dash community members, if you have never visited Nigeria, it is an amazing country. The people are incredibly friendly, the food is amazing, and the cost of living is much lower than many other countries.
I have visited several times, the most recent being about a month ago, and the rate of development is breathtaking. On a visit to Nigeria last year, I visited the Hard Rock cafe in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria: http://allinnigeria.com/listing/hard-rock-cafe-lagos/
I have visited several malls in Nigeria, went grocery shopping, got my haircut, and here are some of my observations:
The bad (IMO):
- electricity is not reliable: it goes out several times per day.
- there is poverty, both at an individual and institutional level, and the associated ills: some bad roads, some poor services, poor tap water quality etc.
The good (IMO):
- Nigeria is a massively consuming nation: cars, food, consumer electronics (e.g. tvs smartphones, laptops etc.). Toyota seems to be the dominant car manufacturer: I would say that 7 out of 10 cars that I saw on the road were Toyota.
- You can hire a driver to drive you around all day for relatively small amounts of money, making Nigeria a pretty good tourist destination as long as you (and/or your guide) know who and where to avoid.
- A lot of Nigerians tend to be perfectionists, valuing quality over speed. I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED A HAIRCUT LIKE THE ONE I RECEIVED IN NIGERIA. It was in an Shoprite shopping mall. They took almost an hour cutting my hair. Once the cut was done, the barber took a razor blade, and carefully lined everything up. Black barbers in the United States are amazing, but even there, I have never had a barber pay as much attention-to-detail as the Nigerian barber did.
This is why I so commend Nathaniel. I have never met him (I wish that I could have when I went last month). He is brilliant, and I saw many people like him during my visits: smart, hardworking, dedicated, humble, kind etc. In other words, the Nigerian culture has a lot of balance: hard work is important, but so is respecting your elders, and caring about your family members. Everything is not about efficiency and maximizing the use of time. It is okay to sometimes take things slowly to get them right the first time.
It would be very good for Dash to gain a foothold in Nigeria. When leaving Nigeria via Murtala Muhammed INTL. Airport in Lagos last month, I noticed a lot more foreigners than on any of my previous trips, of very diverse descents: African-American, European, Asian, Indian etc. Perhaps more importantly, the age ranges were also very diverse. I saw large groups of people who appeared to be in their early twenties, and others in their 30s/40s who probably work for foreign companies who have operations in Nigeria. I could see a future where a lot of foreigners come to Nigeria and spend A LOT of money there. A decentralized form of payment like Dash would be EXTREMELY helpful.
There are too many ongoing Nigerian projects for me to name them all, but here are some significant ones:
Ekko Atlantic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJr3WI5cF7U
There is also a free trade zone being developed in the Lekki/Eleko beach area of Nigeria. A new airport will be built there as well: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g2492082-d13108001-Reviews-Eleko_Beach-Lekki_Lagos_State.html
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