With close to ten years of experience in digital finance, Bidemi has led Flashchange from idea to impact, with the Flashchange app now recognized for its fast, secure and user-friendly trading experience.

Currently launching a second product; a cross border payment platform, Bidemi is passionate about transforming Africa’s financial ecosystem.

Bidemi is an alumnus of Lagos Business school and Strathmore Business School where he has completed various executive programs. He also holds a bachelor’s degree from Obafemi Awolowo University.

In this interview with Techeconomy, he speaks on Nigeria’s crypto tax act, VASP licensing, and economic growth. Excerpt:

TE: With Nigeria processing an estimated $92.1bn in crypto transactions in a year, according to PwC, how can the industry help convert this scale of activity into measurable economic growth and national value?

Bidemi Oke: Transaction volume on its own does not create economic value, structure does. Nigeria can convert crypto activity into measurable value by formalizing the ecosystem through licensing, reporting standards and financial integration.

Once crypto flows through recognized, regulated channels, it becomes visible to policymakers, taxable where appropriate and capable of supporting employment, consumer protection and data-driven policy decisions.

The shift from informal participation to regulated participation is what turns scale into sustainable economic contribution.

TE: If crypto is fully integrated into Nigeria’s formal financial system, which sectors are likely to see the greatest economic impact?

Bidemi: If crypto is coherently integrated into Nigeria’s formal financial system, the benefit would ripple across multiple sectors. The most immediate gains would be seen in fintech, payments, SMEs and the broader digital economy. Crypto infrastructure reduces settlement friction, enables programmable finance and opens alternative funding pathways for businesses.

Capital markets would also benefit through asset tokenization and improved liquidity. Crucially, it is significant to know that secondary sectors such as cybersecurity, compliance, software engineering and digital infrastructure would expand in parallel, creating skilled employment and strengthening Nigeria’s technology backbone.

TE: How can Nigeria’s new Tax Act be applied to crypto in a way that boosts revenue without stifling innovation or driving the market underground?

Bidemi: From a market standpoint, the government’s objective should be to tax value creation, not participation. The government can balance revenue generation and innovation by taxing real value rather than every transaction. This means focusing on profits made by crypto businesses and gains realized by investors, rather than routine transfers or everyday users.

When tax rules are clear, proportional, and applied through licensed entities, compliance becomes simple and natural.

Usually, low entry barriers and predictable rates keeps innovation onshore, prevents activity from slipping back into informal channels and allows the government to grow sustainable revenue alongside a healthy, evolving market.

TE: Beyond taxation, what long-term economic benefits can crypto unlock for Nigeria?

Bidemi: Beyond revenue, crypto offers Nigeria a strategic opportunity to build human capital and exportable digital expertise. It supports high-skill job creation in blockchain engineering, cybersecurity, compliance, data analytics and financial education.

A regulated ecosystem will attract long-term foreign and diaspora investment into Nigerian platforms, helping retain local talent and reduce brain drain.

Over time, crypto would help improve efficiency in payments, trade settlement and digital commerce, thereby enhancing Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global digital economy.

TE: What concrete steps are currently being taken to license and regulate Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) in Nigeria, and how critical is this to market confidence?

Bidemi: SEC has introduced structured VASP licensing frameworks, operational guidelines and sandbox initiatives covering exchanges, custodians and wallet providers. These frameworks were built to emphasize AML/KYC compliance, governance, risk management and capital adequacy.

This is a critical step because credible markets are built on trust. Licensing filters out systemic risk, establishes accountability and provides the regulatory certainty required for long-term market development.

TE: How will proper licensing help protect consumers while also attracting institutional and foreign investment into Nigeria’s crypto ecosystem?

Bidemi: Proper licensing protects consumers by enforcing minimum standards for custody, security, transparency and operational conduct, while providing clear legal recourse.

For institutional and foreign investors, licensing is a signal of regulatory seriousness and market stability. This automatically transforms Nigeria from a high-participation crypto market into an investable one, capable of supporting institutional liquidity, global partnerships and long-term infrastructure investment that benefits the entire system.

TE: What lessons can Nigeria learn from other countries that have successfully regulated crypto?

Bidemi: Jurisdictions such as the UAE, Singapore, and Switzerland demonstrate that crypto regulation works best when it is clear, adaptive and economically intentional. These countries began with foundational rules, engaged closely with industry participants and refined their frameworks as the market matured.

The core lesson from this is that regulation should evolve with innovation and not trail behind it or attempt to suppress it.

Nigeria does not need to replicate any model wholesale, instead, we need a locally grounded framework that aligns with global standards while reflecting domestic realities

Trying to calculate how the money was spent but you still can not pinpoint the actual value you used all that money on.

This can be devastating sometimes, especially when you have worked hard to earn your money, only to find it slipping away without clear explanations.

Hidden expenses and spending traps may be silently draining your income, making it hard to achieve your financial goals. Recognizing these pitfalls, and how to avoid them can help you achieve your financial goals.

Hidden costs that drain your income

• Lifestyle Inflation:

A sudden increase in income can lead to lifestyle inflation, where individuals increase their spending as their income increases, buying luxury items that can deplete their income quickly.

• Poor investment choices:

Some high-income earners may be tempted to make high-risk investments or fall for get-rich-quick schemes, leading to loss of funds. This is majorly due to lack of financial education leading individuals to mismanage their income, especially when they have a lot of money at hand.

They do not understand budgeting, investing, or saving, leading to poor financial decisions.

• Lack of budget:

Individuals without a clear budget tend to overspend on non-essential items, making it easy to lose track of how and where the money goes.

• Unplanned Expenses:

Emergency expenses like car repair, medical bills, or home expenses can easily eat into one’s income without notice, which can quickly drain income or even lead to debt.

Spending traps to avoid

• Emotional spending:

Most individuals often engage in impulsive buying based on emotions and to fulfill pressure and expectations, such as buying expensive gifts; pressure to maintain a certain lifestyle often leads to overspending.

The satisfaction derived from this spending is often fleeting. However, the impact on your finances can be long-lasting.

• Sneaky subscriptions:

Have you ever signed up for free trials to use a particular service and just forgot to cancel? You are not alone.

All these subscriptions quietly siphon money from your account. Especially forgotten auto-renewal for streaming platforms and antivirus software, which can cause unexpected charges and spending, depleting your income quickly.

• Buy Now, Pay Later Offers:

These offers often feel like the most convenient and affordable options in the short term; however, in the long run, they often lead to overspending and financial strain, especially when you don’t consider the certainty of future income and the long-term cost of these purchases.

• Unused gym membership:

The intention to stay fit and live a healthy lifestyle is often great; however, busy schedules, unrealistic expectations, and lack of motivation could lead to gym membership expenses being forgotten, which can cut into your income and make your income vanish quickly.

How to prevent your income from disappearing

You can add, subtract, and divide all day, But until you learn to control your behaviour and spending habits, stick to a budget, and spend less than you earn, your income will continue to seem to disappear faster.

To protect your income, master the following:

• Create and stick to a budget: Setting a realistic budget and sticking to it will help track your expenses, providing an explanation of where and how you spend your income.
• Build an emergency fund to handle unexpected expenses: Emergency expenses are sometimes unavoidable. To prevent them from draining your income, set aside funds for unexpected expenses that can prevent you from achieving your financial goals.
• Regularly review and cut unnecessary expenses like unused subscriptions: To cut unnecessary spending, review your bank account statement and identify any recurring subscriptions you no longer use and cancel them to free up some cash. Set calendar reminders for renewal dates and frequently review these renewals to ascertain their importance.

Financial education: Improving your financial literacy can lead to better money management and informed decision-making.

Invest in financial education, understand saving and investment,, and learn how to make your money work for you.

The model bets on the success of the entertainment platform to attract young people to take an extra step in strengthening their entrepreneurial skills.

This highlights the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships in ensuring access to skills and educational messages for Africa’s youth. Moreover, the critical importance of experience-based learning and platforms in advancing socio-economic transformation.

Over the years in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, we have learnt about the effectiveness of purpose-led partnerships.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic provided us with a sense of urgency in supporting individuals and households to take full advantage of the digital economy.

The continent’s response to health emergencies suggest that we have the tools to push forward in creating a more inclusive society particularly in the areas of education and capacity development.

Education, specifically financial education, is a critical tool to enable both individuals and communities to prosper. Entrepreneurship holds some of the answers in alleviating unemployment in Africa, but it needs to come with the right set of skills and opportunities.

Trace Academia, has taken the lead in bringing partners to offer a range of skills to millions of young Africans through their media platform.

This rich content has re-imagined Visa’s Practical Business Skills to allow young people to learn lifelong transferable skills.

Leveraging the power of technology, both platforms have been able to bring relevant financial education content that changes the way the youth interact with entrepreneurial concepts.

Skills development is one step in the right direction as we continue to collaborate with others to create opportunities for young people. The real impact is in the continuous application of these skills, which will help us navigate some of the challenges that affect youth and employment on the continent.  

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated preference for digital commerce and highlighted the opportunity of key stakeholders to come together to collaborate at the intersection of commerce and skills.

Research shows 80 million young people will benefit from the rise of digital commerce in Africa by 2030 but this can only be enabled by access to adequate skills and relevant platforms.

Financial education starts at home and the role of parents and guardians cannot be over emphasized.

Practical Money Skills is an online resource which provides content for children and youth grades K to 12. The end in mind is the ability to take control of your finances as an individual or as a household.

As such, the fundamental habit of careful management of available resources at home builds the framework for financial education and financial consumer protection which ultimately leads to more communities being included in the financial system.

As in the health sector, behaviour change communication and prevention are key factors in curbing the spread of a disease. In our case, financial education and protection are key tenants in spreading expertise and leveraging skills required for individuals to sustain their livelihoods and for entrepreneurs to expand their trade from local to global value chains.

Access to healthcare and financial education may, at first, be unrelated but the pandemic has exposed the fragility of the current economic system when skills are lacking.

There is evidence suggesting that debt and financial concerns have a serious impact on mental health. As such, people living in financial hardship are at increased risk of mental health problems and poorer mental wellbeing.

Financial wellness is important for individuals and communities to continue to make a sustainable contribution to the continent.

Most critical diseases affecting the continent over the past half-century have been managed through partnerships.

Today, more than ever, we can take a cue from the health sector to make financial education accessible to all, it is a life skill that should be valued.