James Mwangi, CEO of Equity Group Holdings, has emphasized that cryptocurrency can supplement mobile money in Africa if regulators can be convinced of its benefits.
“Having Bitcoin as official cash can open up new alternatives including mobile money. Cryptocurrency can as well complement the mobile money wallet, but essentially, we need to talk to the regulators.” He said.
Many central banks on the African continent have warned against trading cryptocurrency, while some have made it outright illegal.
According to James, Nigeria, The Central African Republic and South Africa are some of the countries that have stood out for him when it comes to adopting blockchain and crypto. This is because The Central African Republic has recently accepted Bitcoin as legal tender and the South African Reserve Bank is formulating rules to protect investors after launching Project Khokha 2, a web 3 program.
“Africa will benefit substantially from leapfrogging on the fourth industrial technologies, and cryptocurrency is one of them,” James added.
James also mentioned that in Kenya, mobile money transactions that were only made possible through the willingness of the regulator to try out new technology have surpassed the use of hard currency.
Conclusively, the new technology can help elevate Africa’s competitiveness, especially in the Fintech market. And linking crypto to mobile money seems like the new tactic.