Mouloukou Sanoh is the Co-founder of Cassava Network, a Web3 platform focused on entertainment, gaming and rewards for the African continent. He is keenly interested in driving Web3 adoption in Africa.
Mouloukou is also an Investment Manager at Adaverse, a $100 million fund backed by Emurgo, and a Vice President Emerging Markets at Everest Ventures Group, a global venture studio.
Additionally, he previously ran Mansa Capital, an investment advisory firm helping African startups raise funding. Past deals completed by Mr. Mouloukou include Crowdforce, Skygarden, Omnisient, Kwara and more.
As a global character who has lived in four countries, namely; China, Guinea, Netherlands and Belgium, Mouloukou has cultivated a culture of adaptability and an open minded nature.
He speaks in varying degrees of fluency, French, English, Mandarin Chinese and Mandingo.
Mouloukou has his eyes presently focused on Africa as he explains in this brief interview:
Do you plan to carry out more education and conversations around crypto, Metaverse and Blockchain Technology in Nigeria?
We aim to do bigger and more events throughout Africa and not only Nigeria. Education is key in the emerging tech space.
Although Nigeria is the biggest crypto market we have seen in Africa, we believe that there are opportunities everywhere on the continent; there are opportunities in Kenya, Ghana, and there are opportunities even in places like Sudan and Ethiopia.
We believe that Cassava Network as a global company has to reach everywhere. Nevertheless, we’re a global company with very strong African roots.
The plan is to dominate the African market and once we’ve dominated the African market we go on a global expansion to places like Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Now, Blockchain Technology, you have to look at the landscape of payments in regards to the African continent. So, number one is cost.
According to the World Bank it costs 11% to send money to Africa. I think in 2022 the figure was 6 billion dollars paid in fees to all these remittance providers like Western Union. First of all, that is ridiculously expensive.
Secondly, it’s a very slow process, like it takes up to 3 to 4 days. Sometimes, you can’t even send money to places like Nigeria because they’ve been blacklisted. So, sending money to Africa and within the African continent is extremely difficult because of all the different capital controls, but when you bring into consideration the Blockchain Technology then you see different use cases.
The most important is remittance as mentioned. You can send money from anywhere around the world to Africa in a matter of seconds. All you need is a crypto wallet and stablecoins.
Actually, you don’t even need stablecoins but stablecoins is the easiest form for sending money. You can send stablecoins. You can send and receive money because you have a crypto wallet and if you have a history of spending and receiving money, you can access loans.
So, let’s think about that farmer that is in the remote village in Kano State where the bank is 10km away. If he goes to the bank and asks for a loan in order to increase his crop, the bank is not going to give it to him because he has no financial history but if he has crypto wallet and he has been sending money back and forth, then he creates a financial history and from that he’s able to get a loan from many crypto companies and because he has a loan, he can increase his crop and eventually he can increase the livelihood for himself and his family.
There are many solutions we’re starting to see, such as crypto investment accounts like fixed accounts, just like savings accounts or like investment accounts, there are different things that the ecosystem and the current financial infrastructure on the continent has simply not been able to provide to the masses.
Cassava Network raised a sizable fund some time ago, but are you looking at raising more funds soon?
Yes, we raised funds and that goes to show different investors believe in what we’re building in the market. Secondly, it shows the attractiveness of African opportunities to global investors. Yes, we’re very happy to have all these investors on board with us.
Our token which was supposed to be released this year is on pause given market conditions. We have paused the release of our token till market conditions improve but I was talking to different utility providers, you can even stake our tokens to earn rewards and many other things.
So, for more information please keep your eyes on our various social media channels and you shall get more information.
Few weeks back, Cassava Network introduced the AfriMyth Avatar generators. So, how does it fit into your plans for the Nigerian or African market?
Perfect. So when you look at the AfriMyth Avatars, they are reflections of African mythology and are named based on traditional African mythology. So, together with the NFT collection, we wanted to showcase our African heritage to the world. But these avatars are more than just avatars. They are your digital identity, which allows you to access the Cassava rewards protocol.
Cassava Network’s interest is to harness the growing interest in Blockchain Technology across Africa by creating a stepping stone for users to enter the world of cryptocurrencies and Web3.
Also, with AfriMyth, we’re paying tribute to the rich and diverse people and their stories from across Africa and sharing them with the world. It’s also the first step on our journey towards widespread Web3 adoption as we look to roll out Cassava’s Web3 infrastructure over the coming months and years.
What is your plan for the coming year?
Our plan next year is simply to dominate the market, that’s the plan for next year. For the past few months, we’ve been seeing what the ecosystem needs and we’re going to focus more on what our users need.
Also, African crypto consumer demands, it’s going to be exciting next year, you’ll see us collaborating with bigger artists. Definitely, you’ll see our presence beyond Nigeria. Over the next year I’m spending time in Kenya, Egypt, Ghana and Senegal, essentially all over the continent.
We’ll increase our hiring, we’d partner with more artists. We’d do more global exhibitions.
We have some plans to do exhibitions, like we’ve done in London, in Hong Kong, in Miami and even in other cities. We plan to partner with bigger names and partners.
There are few names already on board which I don’t want to reveal at this moment. What I can tell your readers is to watch out, it’s coming and we’re coming to provide better solutions for the everyday crypto user in Nigeria and in Africa.
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