Bitcoin Loves Kenya (& East Africa)

Legacy and Hope

There has been near-endless controversy surrounding cryptocurrencies worldwide these last few years. Whether it be Bitcoin, Ethereum, BitcoinCash, or DogeCoin (LOL, remember that?), they have all been trending non-stop, not just in the tech-sphere but in governmental, social, and corporate spheres everywhere.

One might even say that almost all countries in the world at this point in time have done something crypto-related or web3-related.

Good or bad, whether it be monitoring, legalizing, or even illegalizing certain crypto coins or all of them in totality. First-world countries like the USA are legalizing bitcoin trading and actively getting involved in the cryptocurrency industry by making their own stablecoin, the USDC.

Emerging world countries like El Salvador are not just legalizing bitcoin trading, but the government is actively buying it in huge quantities to act as foreign reserves.

Even 3rd world countries like the Central African Republic are getting involved in the Web3 space by making a decentralized real-estate system in which you pay for the land with cryptocurrencies and currencies like bitcoin (I wrote an article about it here).

Amongst all the hustle and bustle from across the world, one continent, one region, and one country stand out. Africa stands head and shoulders above all its counterparts as a fertile ground for cryptocurrency adoption. Not just that, in Africa, East Africa is the leading African cryptocurrency and web3 embrace.

Of the East African nations, Kenya is the obvious leader in not just crypto adoption but crypto normalization.

This article delves into Bitcoin's legacy in East Africa, exploring its impact on financial inclusion, innovation, and the region’s economic landscape.

The “Unbanked” Are the “Uncorrupted”!!

Most Africans do not trust their governments, and as an extension of that, they do not trust their financial systems even more! Most Africans have a distrust of financial institutions. How do we know this? Africans cross-continentally refuse to make bank accounts inside their countries and would rather keep their money informally. This is evidenced by a bne IntelliNews, which found that, at best, only 43% of adult Africans have a bank account.

It is especially interesting because African banks are extraordinarily profitable and often reliable (besides central banks). According to Bankscope in 2021, banks in 24 African countries had an average Return on Equity (RoE) of 22%. Informally, counting more African countries and their banks, this number only goes up. Yet, Africans still prefer not to use banks.

In fact, Africans in East Africa are prone to physically keep their money in stashes or hide it in their Mobile Wallets. Mobile Wallets? Yes, a digital storage system for the country’s currency, and it allows you to make digital payments on electricity, gas, food, housing, bill payments, etc.

The Bureaucratic Mess

Despite Bitcoin's bright future and current reality in Kenya/East Africa, there are still concerns. Concerns are mainly perpetuated by governmental bodies and their subsidiary regulatory bodies. Let us look at clear examples of this in Kenya and the surrounding countries. To be specific, the Rwanda, Kenya & Uganda governments have at least acknowledged and informally engaged on the matters of cryptocurrency.

Let’s go through each of them to see how engaged they are on the topic of cryptocurrencies but Bitcoin specifically:

Uganda:

• Ambiguity: Uganda is one of the few African countries with Bitcoin ATMs, yet the government itself is still woefully confused and challenged on it. The Bank of Uganda issued a warning to the public about their use. However, ALL banks issue warnings against using cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, as they are a direct challenge.

• TAX TAX: Uganda’s government doesn’t know how to tax cryptocurrencies. So, they are against them on the tax side but on the technology side, are for them.

Kenya:

• Ambiguity: Kenya societally is the most pro-cryptocurrencies and pro-Bitcoin of all of the East African countries. However, the central bank still warns against them due to the obvious competition they present.

• Mobile Money: Kenya leads East Africa (and Africa) in terms of mobile money usage. Mobile Money is like crypto except with nation-defined currencies. So, the jump from that to Bitcoin isn’t that far for the populace.

• Framework: A regulatory framework is being created for cryptocurrencies, although slow.

Rwanda:

• PROGRESSIVE: Compared to its neighbors, Rwanda has a more progressive stance on cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin adoption. The government has even expressed interest in blockchain development for some national systems in the future.

• Framework: Rwanda is actively developing a regulatory framework; even more so than Kenya!

Bitcoins Future In Africa’s East

Bitcoins’ future in East Africa, even if slightly up and down at times, is all the way up! If we look at the trend in East African youth, in terms of societal focus, it is geared towards freedom of expression, freedom of choice, and freedom of work. This goes hand in hand with cryptocurrency adoption, aka Bitcoin adoption! the youth want to be free to express themselves! There's no greater freedom than the freedom of writing, speaking, and finances.

Bitcoin can be leveraged as a catalyst for change within these nations. It could even be argued that the greatest change that will come from these nations in the future is in their financial sector. Their GDPs, their export quantity, export type, and even their cash flow transfer methods.

Specific to cash flow transfer methods, it is most certainly going to be majorly cryptocurrency-based, and as things stand the dominating cryptocurrency will be Bitcoin. It is an exciting future for Bitcoin in East Africa!