NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

With the high mobile phone penetration already in place, Africa is set to enable more users to download a Bitcoin wallet on their devices.

In an email last year, Werner van Rooyen from Bitx, one of Africa’s biggest Bitcoin exchange firms, wrote that Africa has been waiting for something like BitcoinCT r:  8 for a long time.

Why? He said the continent of over a billion people has been underserved by financial institutions for such a long time.

Factors for Bitcoin use growth in Africa

Some of the factors he cited in this regard are the high cost of financial infrastructure, high fees compared to the average earnings, high cost of having a physical presence like ATMs, bank branches and remittance offices.