In February 2025, the African Union Commission (AUC) elections took place — a major event with implications across the continent. Yet, despite its importance, there was no public market to forecast the outcome. No dashboard tracking sentiment. No crowd-driven data. No way for the public to participate in real-time analysis. And definitely, no Polymarket.
If this event had been available on Polymarket — or better yet, on an African-focused platform like NextMarket (that is at conceptual stage and currently sharing ideas of a bright future for Africa) - it could have been a game-changer, not just for traders, but for transparency, information flow, and civic engagement.
Instead, most Africans relied on media speculation, government press releases, and social media rumors.
But if this election had been live on a prediction market:
Polymarket covered the 2020 and 2024 U.S. elections, and also the Canadian federal elections — and they were some of the most accurate public indicators of real-time outcomes.
Prediction markets became a source of truth, independent of traditional polling errors and media bias.
The African media landscape is still growing — but it’s often fragmented, politically biased, and slow to report reliable data.
Prediction markets don’t replace journalism — they challenge it to be better. They offer a second opinion, sourced from the wisdom of the crowd, in real time.
If Polymarket had been running during the AUC elections:
Even without focusing on profit, just the presence of a public sentiment dashboard would have added value to journalists, policymakers, and everyday citizens.
Over the next 5 years, major elections are coming in:
Each of these presents a massive opportunity for:
The good news is, Polymarket has now added African elections to its platform, just last month of May 2025. This marks the beginning of something powerful. You can watch unfold and participate here as I am: Polymarket Global Elections
For the first time in History of African Elections, we can have:
This is a huge step forward for Africa — a continent ready to define its own narrative using blockchain-based markets. If we embrace this, we can become a more transparent, data-driven, and participatory continent.
NextMarket is still here, pushing that dream forward.
While Polymarket has sparked the light, we want to be the ones to carry the torch. We are building an African-first platform — one that brings local markets, cultural polls, regional elections, and pan-African insights into the prediction economy.
If Africa embraces this — and embraces blockchain technology — we can catch up with and even lead the world in how information is captured, trusted, and traded.
This is not the end. It’s the beginning.
Let’s build it together.
Read more of Karleb's articles here: Prediction Market Articles.
