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Africa’s Web3 Leaders Set for Decentralized Nigeria 2.0 in Lagos

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Decentralized Nigeria

Decentralized Nigeria 2.0 returns to Lagos on August 15, 2026, featuring Web3 discussions and the first-ever blockchain gala and awards night

Lagos is once again preparing to become the epicentre of Africa’s blockchain revolution as Decentralized Nigeria, the continent’s most talked-about Web3 conference is returning for its second edition, and this time, the organizers are raising the bar with an awards and gala Nite.

Also read: With Right Frameworks, Nigeria can be Web3 leader in Africa, beyond – Nova Phoenix, Co-Convener, decentralized Nigeria

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Decentralized Nigeria 2.0 is scheduled for August 15, 2026 and will be held at the iconic MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

Beyond the conference itself, the 2026 edition introduces what could be the most addition yet, and that is the first major gala celebration of individuals, brands, and organizations in Nigeria’s fintech and crypto space.

Blockchain leaders, Web3 developers, policymakers, NFT creators, investors, the government, enthusiasts, and private sector executives are expected to converge in a gathering that many described as unlike anything they had seen on the continent.

Co-convened by two individuals who, in many ways, embody the transcontinental ambition of the project, Nova Phoenix, founder of LyfebloodDAO headquartered in New York and Rume Ophi, a Lagos-based blockchain educator, crypto market analyst, and former Executive Secretary of the Blockchain Association of Nigeria, the inaugural edition of Decentralized event positions Nigeria, the world’s second-largest country by cryptocurrency as a nation actively shaping the policy, infrastructure, and dimensions of the Web3 age, particularly in Africa.

The conversations spanned decentralized finance, tokenization of real-world assets, the role of blockchain in transparent governance, cross-border payment solutions and what it would take for stablecoins and decentralized exchanges to operate within Africa’s evolving regulatory frameworks.

2.0: Bigger, Bolder, and Built for History
The conference will once again bring together the full spectrum of Nigeria’s and Africa’s blockchain ecosystem with panels, keynote addresses, workshops, and networking sessions.

It will dig deeper into the themes that defined the first edition and push the conversation into territory that the community is only beginning to explore.

The Maiden Gala and Awards Night
In what organizers and industry watchers are already calling a landmark moment for the Nigerian digital assets ecosystem, Decentralized Nigeria 2.0 will introduce a Gala and Awards Night making it the first major gala ever held to formally celebrate the individuals and organizations that have built the fintech and Web3 space within the country. The organizers say it is a moment that is long overdue.

Nigeria’s Web3 ecosystem has, over the past several years, produced several key brands for the country and Africa. Even with the large leaps in the space, Nigeria has yet to fully embrace the excellence and provide the industry with moments of collective pride and public visibility.

This event will be the opportunity to have a dedicated, prestigious platform for every individual taking the lead in this space.

Nova Phoenix, co-convener of the event, describes the evolution from the first edition to the second as a natural and necessary progression. “Decentralized Nigeria which is part of the DCD network is a mission. The first edition was setting the foundation and gathering the community under one roof to put minds together. What we saw in Lagos was Africa speaking for itself in the language of Web3 and the world needed to witness that. Now with 2.0, we are not just repeating what worked, we are expanding what is possible.”

Rume Ophi, who has spent years at the frontlines of blockchain education and advocacy in Nigeria, is equally unequivocal about the importance of what the 2026 edition represents. “One of the things that has always struck me about Nigeria’s crypto and Web3 community is the sheer depth of talent and sacrifice that exists within it. People have built extraordinary things, often against enormous odds, most times through regulatory uncertainty, infrastructure gaps, and public skepticism, and done so with very little formal recognition. The Decentralized Nigeria Awards changes that. For the first time, we have a platform that says, in the most public and celebratory way possible, that this industry is real, that these contributions are valuable, and that excellence in fintech/Web3 will be honoured just as excellence in any other field is honoured. ”

When Nova Phoenix and Rume Ophi first announced the inaugural Decentralized Nigeria conference, they described their mission in terms that were equal parts visionary and grounded, that Africa’s Web3 revolution, they insisted, must be led by Africans.

Also read: Decentralized Nigeria Conference to ignite Africa’s Web3 revolution in Lagos

Not in opposition to the global blockchain community, but in genuine partnership with it, with full awareness of the continent’s unique socio-economic conditions, its particular regulatory challenges, its infrastructure gaps, and above all, its extraordinary human capital.

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Heirs Life Names Pastor Jerry Eze Independent Non-Executive Director

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Heirs Life appoints Jerry Eze as an Independent Non-Executive Director to strengthen financial inclusion, consumer trust and insurance adoption (more…)

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Shoreline Group secures US$200 million Afreximbank Facility

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Shoreline Group today announced that African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has approved a US$200 million facility in favour of Shoreline Power Company Limited and co-borrowers including Arkad S.p.A., Shoreline’s majority-owned engineering and construction platform.
Approved in June 2026, the facility was arranged and provided by Afreximbank as sole mandated lead arranger and lender. It provides bonding and working-capital capacity for Arkad’s delivery of the Hassi Bir Rekaiz project and supports Shoreline and its affiliates in developing further pipeline and infrastructure
projects in Nigeria and other permitted jurisdictions.
“This is a defining transaction for Shoreline and Arkad. We built Arkad as an African- sponsored engineering platform capable of competing at the highest level, and it is now delivering against a billion-dollar energy contract. Afreximbank’s US$200 million commitment gives the platform the financial strength to match its engineering capability and pursue further major infrastructure mandates. It demonstrates that African enterprises can assemble the capital, capability and partnerships required to compete for infrastructure at international scale.”
Hassi Bir Rekaiz Phase 2a Arkad holds 44 per cent of the approximately US$1 billion EPCCS-1 contract awarded by Groupement
Hassi Bir Rekaiz (GHBR) to an unincorporated consortium led by Egypt’s Petrojet, which holds 56 percent. EPCCS-1 covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up for the Phase 2a central processing facility and related infrastructure at the Hassi Bir Rekaiz field in Algeria’s Berkine
Basin.
GHBR is the joint operating entity for the licence, held by Sonatrach with 51 per cent and Thailand’s PTTEP with 49 per cent. The project includes a new crude oil processing facility with capacity of 31,500 barrels per day, facilities for associated gas and produced-water treatment, approximately 217 kilometres
of pipelines and the brownfield modifications required to integrate existing Phase 1 infrastructure.
The facilities are designed to support later expansion to 63,000 barrels per day under Phase 2b.
“This financing addresses the instruments that determine whether an EPC contractor can execute at scale: performance guarantees, advance payment guarantees and working capital through the project cycle. Hassi Bir Rekaiz is a demanding scope, combining a new central processing facility, associated treatment systems, pipelines and brownfield integration. With Petrojet, and with the support of Shoreline and Afreximbank, Arkad is focused on disciplined delivery against the project’s safety, quality and schedule requirements.”
The transaction was structured under Afreximbank’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction Initiative, which supports African engineering and construction firms with the financial instruments required to compete for and execute large infrastructure contracts. Afreximbank also supported the Arkad-Petrojet partnership through its EPC twinning work at the Intra-African Trade Fair held in Algiers
in 2025.
According to Afreximbank, the transaction is its first support for a Sub-Saharan African contractor undertaking a major infrastructure project in North Africa. For Shoreline, it demonstrates a practical model for combining African ownership and capital with established international engineering andindustrial capability.

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BUSINESSWOMAN AISHA ACHIMUGU SPEAKS OUT, CALLS FOR PROTECTION OF LIFE AND RESPECT FOR RULE OF LAW

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Nigerian businesswoman and investor Aisha Achimugu has made a public appeal for the protection of her life, her family, and her business interests while alleging a sustained campaign of intimidation, media trial, and asset seizures.

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Achimugu, in a statement Tuesday, said she is facing actions that she described as an affront to the rule of law and natural justice.
She then called for the respect for court orders and for an end to what she termed misleading media coverage about her person and companies.
According to Achimugu, the widow of the late Engr. Sulaiman Achimugu, former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, she has over the last three decades built businesses in the oil and gas and other sectors, and runs the SAM Empowerment Foundation, SEF, which she said has implemented health, education, and community projects across Nigeria.
The businesswoman, however, alleged that since 2023 she has been the subject of investigations and actions by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Narrating her ordeals, Achimugu noted that in 2023, the EFCC’s Port Harcourt zonal office froze her personal accounts, her children’s accounts, and company accounts linked to the Felak Group, based on an interim forfeiture order.
She said this was connected to a mistaken association with MBA Forex and Capital Investment.
Achimugu stated that in January 2024 she honoured an EFCC invitation with her counsel, clarified her company’s single transaction with MBA Forex, and refunded N58 million by bank draft to the EFCC recovery account.
In March 2025, the businesswoman said she received WhatsApp messages inviting her to the EFCC Port Harcourt office. Her lawyer responded in writing, proposing dates in April 2025. Despite this, she alleged a media campaign began on March 10, 2025 linking her to wrongdoing.
On March 28, 2025, the same day her company, Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited, submitted proof of $20 million payment to NUPRC for oil blocks PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007, subsequently, she claimed the EFCC declared her a “Wanted Person” for “conspiracy and money laundering.” She also alleged that EFCC operatives searched her home that day.
In April 2025, Achimugu said she filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. But upon returning to Nigeria on April 28, 2025 from a foreign trip, she alleged she was taken into EFCC custody, granted bail by a judge, but released five days later. She also said her international passport was collected.
She alleged further asset actions, including freezing of bank accounts, and the seizure of vehicles from her home in January 2026. She said matters relating to these actions are the subject of ongoing litigation and appeals.
Achimugu also alleged that her United States visa was revoked in April 2025, and that she encountered issues with visa processing related to her Grenadian citizenship, which she linked to media reports citing the EFCC’s declaration.
Achimugu stated that she has invested nearly $90 million in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in the last five years and has attracted over $100 million in investments into the economy while directly employs close to 200 Nigerians.
However, she said the actions of the anti-graft agency have affected her business operations, international partnerships, and family, including her elderly parents and young children.
Achimugu then called on the National Assembly, the Judiciary, security services, and local and international human rights organizations to examine her case.
She also asked for the protection of her life and properties, respect for court orders, and an end to what she described as a “media trial”.
“I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and I am not afraid to face the law provided due process is followed. My lawyers are pursuing all legal remedies locally and internationally,” she said.
Achimugu added that she remains committed to Nigeria and to supporting private sector growth.

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