Nedbank Acquires Property in Non-existent Ubuntuland Metaverse
By purchasing virtual property in Africarare’s Ubuntuland Metaverse, which does not yet exist, Nedbank has become the most recent significant South African corporation to join the non-fungible token (NFT) mania. In order to become the first African financial services organization to enter the Metaverse, the bank claimed to have acquired a 12 × 12 village in Ubuntuland with 144 plots.
According to Nedbank, this fits into the financial services group’s overall ambition to lead in digital, expand beyond banking, develop new marketing platforms.
“This forms part of the financial services group’s strategy to lead in digital, go beyond banking, discover new marketing platforms and leverage new technology to better serve its customers and stay at the forefront through forward-thinking solutions,” said Nedbank.
“Nedbank joins global players such as DBS Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, and Fidelity Investments who have partnered with Metaverse globally.”
Khensani Nobanda, the executive in charge of marketing and corporate affairs at Nedbank, stated that Nedbank regarded the acquisition as a chance to better serve its customers by acquiring platforms that would appeal to them. The bank claimed that the village would emphasize client value and services while providing amenities like a sports lounge and virtual gaming. Nedbank announced that it will join the original “settlers” of Ubuntuland, which also include MTN, World Data Lab, and M&C Saatchi Abel.
Simply put, Ubuntuland is a 3D virtual environment where NFTs are present and are linked to the Ethereum Blockchain. NFTs would represent user avatars, in-world items, and the world’s spaces itself. Developers are responsible for making in-world representations of each of these NFTs.
The transaction history for Ubuntuland’s NFTs on Opensea gives an idea of what it may have cost, despite Nedbank not disclosing the price it paid for its 144 plots. Nedbank might have purchased its virtual property in Ubuntuland for 11.8368 Ethereum if the average selling price per plot had remained at its current level of 0.0822 Ethereum. At the time of publication, that was equivalent to about R283,500.
An individual plot typically costs around $149, according to Cape Talk prior quotes from Mann Made Media, the organization behind Africarare and Ubuntuland. Nedbank would have spent more like R395,000 at that price for its 12 by 12 piece of virtual land.