Africa is a resource-rich continent and as of 2019, there were about 1.3 billion people living in 54 countries in Africa. But the last few decades have been financially challenging for people living there because of the economic crises and many more problems existing from the root level.
It was predicted that Africa would recover from its worst economic downturn in 2021. However, due to an unprecedented global pandemic caused by COVID-19, economic activity in Africa was disrupted again in 2020.
The condition of traditional financial institutions in Africa has experienced a serious nose dive in recent times and the economy is slowly dying. People are in search of a better value system and digital currencies are godsent.
One of the recent digital currency reports used “Africa is one of, if not the most promising region for the adoption of cryptocurrencies.” as the introduction line. The report, titled ‘The State of Crypto: Africa’, looks at the vast potential of the sector, while also acknowledging the obstacles that lie ahead.
The Report also stated that “Africa has shown early signs that it is ready to adopt digital currencies”. A recent survey report also showed that South Africa ranks third globally, with 13% of internet users holding digital currency. Nigeria stands at 11%, well above the global average of 7%.
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Lack of Proper Banking System and High Charges
This major interest in Africa stems from several factors. One is the high inflation rate in most African countries, which has prompted citizens to look for better alternatives to their traditional or fiat currencies. And while the peak in Zimbabwe gets all the attention, other more stable economies haven’t done well either. For example, the South African rand has lost 50% of its value against the US dollar over the past decade.
Africa is also completely under-banked. A World Bank survey showed that the availability of banking services in Sub-Saharan Africa is 61% lower than the global average.
People in Africa can reach banks, but the fees are incredibly high. And while remittances from overseas are expensive, payments between African countries are even higher, accounting for more than 18% of the average transaction value.
The Big Relief
Digital currencies provide Africans with a big relief from many of these challenges. Already, services that enable money transfers across borders using digital currencies are becoming extremely popular.
One of such platforms has processed over $500 million in cross-border transfers via digital currencies. While another has also attracted prime interest, with lower fees and faster transaction times using Bitcoin SV.
There are still several challenges
However, the report acknowledges that there are several challenges. The infrastructure to support the use of a digital currency is lacking. Only a handful of exchanges serve Africa’s 1.3 billion people. To overcome this, Africans rely on some of the P2P platforms, such as Paxful and LocalBitcoins.
There is a small group of merchants that accept digital currency payments in Africa. Additionally, the number of digital currency ATMs is also quite lower.
The rate of technology adoption is even lower, with less than 0.3% of nodes in Africa for popular digital currencies. Africa’s contribution to digital currency mining is also almost non-existent.
Low internet and smartphone access are other challenges, as is competition from mobile service providers such as Kenya’s M-Pesa. Regulators haven’t made it easy, with some, such as Morocco and Algeria, banning digital currencies altogether.
The report concluded by saying, “This underdevelopment presents a huge opportunity for projects and companies to build the necessary infrastructure and adopt go-to-market strategies similar to the projects discussed in this report. We are already seeing a lot of development related to cryptocurrency in Africa and expect this development to accelerate in the coming years.”
The Hope: POICoin
POICoin is a project focused on solving most of these problems. It is Africa’s first coin in value exchange and empowerment; It is a revolutionary cryptocurrency developed in Africa and aims to revive Africa’s dying economy by putting blockchain technology in every mobile phone and by becoming Africa’s first coin in value exchange and empowerment.
It will provide a blockchain environment with a value system that allows the economy to bring current blockchain compliant individuals/businesses and new or non-blockchain users together through diverse systemic DApps. The same blockchain technology powers these DApps. These advanced DApps will serve as real-time practical solutions to real-life problems in Africa and beyond.
POICoin is a decentralized, blockchain-based digital currency built with the ERC20 standard for smart contracts. This will speed up transactions and help you save by eliminating intermediates. POICoin on one side is providing solutions to existing problems and on the other side providing better ways with more profit and advancement.
POICoin is solving the existing problems which includes:
- Unavailability of everyday products and services on a blockchain platform.
- Inability to do business globally using the preferred method of payment.
- Complex and slow platform which makes it difficult for people to use the platform efficiently without rigorous training.
- The middleman between producers/e-commerce and consumers/users makes payment processing more difficult and very costly.
- Non-availability of a secure payment system that allows merchants to accept digital currency.
- Inability to safely and easily convert digital currencies such as bitcoin and ether into local currencies
So the needs and internal problems of Africans are driving it to adopt digital currency. But digital or cryptocurrency based projects like POICoin and several new ones are the genuine hope for Africans. They are not only making things easy for the people but also helping them with a better value system.
Meanwhile, the first phase of PoiCoin ICO Pre-sale ended on 13th June, however, you can still take advantage of the second phase which will start from June 20, 2021. 23:59 UTC and will end on July 4, 2021 23:59 UTC. In this pre-sale a total of 20,000,000 POI tokens will be available for buying at $0.15/POI. So, don’t miss this opportunity and invest in PoiCoin to build a better economic future for Africans. Visit Poicoin.net today.
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