Along with the rest of the world, Africa too has jumped the bandwagon in the race towards deep investment into the cryptocurrency market. Some might even say that Africa is leading the race in certain types of cryptocurrencies. Data analysts have studied that there has been a great influx on Google servers from Africa showing people researching investing in cryptocurrency.
Unlike fiat currency, cryptocurrency is not regulated by the government or issued by any government. The fact that it leads to a decentralized future for all to invest in one area is a very appealing aspect for smaller countries such as in Africa. Smaller African countries have weak and unstable economies with the government monopolizing most of the trade in the country, leaving little to nothing for their citizens.
The banks and governments in countries such as Nigeria tried their best to tackle the booming rise of cryptocurrency investments. The shutting down of bank accounts that seemed to be involved in cryptocurrency transactions. However even this did not stop people as they then began to trade person to person instead of investing in larger transactions.
The rise of cryptocurrency post 2009 has been the light at the end of the tunnel for most African citizens all over the continent. This gave them a chance to trade and earn unanimously and outside the regulations of the government of the day. Even though the idea is very appealing to the masses, there are things that need to be considered before they step into the uncertain realms of the cryptocurrency market. Some of the basic issues faced by African countries have been:
Lack of accessibility to internet
Most areas beyond the little urban developments have little to no access to the internet. This makes it hard for a huge majority of the population to have the means to begin investing in cryptocurrency let alone use the internet to learn more about it.
This again leads to the concentration of money to only a number of people privileged enough to have the internet to profit off from cryptocurrency. Meanwhile there is a vast majority that even if they know about the wonders of cryptocurrency, remain isolated from the rest and are unable to gain anything.
Lack of financial literacy
For those who are privileged enough to have the means to afford or access the internet do not always have the knowledge to comprehend the complexities of the cryptocurrency market. Most people believe that it is as simple as investing into the stock market or making a real estate investment. The fraction of the population that does have enough savings to invest into cryptocurrency is basically doing it with their eyes shut and waiting to see if the odds are in their favor.
However all hope is not lost, most people rely on different platforms such as the Bitiq software to make their trades for them. Most such platforms have simplified the process of investing your money in steps that are easy to grasp.
Lack of regulation in the market
Most companies and platforms that do operate within African countries are faced with issues because of the lack of regulation. Most companies go out of business in no time because there are no rules of the book that protect them.
They are forced to follow the same regulations as given to banks when it comes to minimum capital and how to hold transactions. These companies have gotten together to fight against the lack of regulation and urged the government to make policies that let their operations stay afloat.
People hearing of such cryptocurrency companies going out of business within their region gives a rise to more mistrust to the venture and most people continue to shy away from investing. People need to see consistency by the industry once they trust them enough to buy into their platforms and download the apps that offer such investment services. People want to engage with the industry directly via such platforms and understand the market firsthand.
While most African countries continue to face problems attached to the lack of the most basic necessities, slowly but surely Africa is starting to splurge into the cryptocurrency market. Even though the contribution to the cryptocurrency market remains a small proportion of the global market it is still a step ahead towards stabilizing their economy.
Considering the economic instability, cryptocurrency can be the future for the masses that are looking for alternative ways to save. Even the small proportion of these investments has had life changing results for those that did take a shot at cryptocurrency investment.
The future of the African economy is in the hands of its citizens investing into the cryptocurrency market as soon as possible. All modern economies are rapidly leaving behind the traditional fiat currency and it is quite probable that the global market might completely transform to depend on cryptocurrency as a means of exchange of goods and services.
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