#36. Cryptocurrency launches in Africa: how to, and how not to
The launch of Nestcoin, the launch of the eNaira and a source for Africa tech.
Welcome! Have you been wondering
What is up with the launch of Nestcoin?💸🇳🇬
How did the eNaira launch go last month?📲🇳🇬
Where to read and watch content on African tech?📰📺
If so, keep reading…
Nestcoin: helping Africans engage with cryptocurrencies
The adoption of cryptocurrencies in Africa is of $105BN in market value, a 1,200% growth in a year. However, there is still a lot of room for growth and adoption.
This week Yele Bademosi launched Nestcoin: a company company that builds and invests in products that introduce crypto to novices, including its evolving uses. It will engage writers to explain concepts like DeFi, NFTs, DAOs etc. Its broader goal is to increase crypto adoption.
The first problem they want to solve is to make it easier to understand crypto. 55% of Nigerians, 56% of South Africans and 64% of Kenyans avoid crypto because they don’t know enough about it.
Nestcoin has been launched in Nigeria with a Nigerian team, but the expansion ambitions are continental for Africa.
Failure story: the eNaira’s launch
While Nestcoin is having a promising launch, the eNaira is not being the same case in its first weeks.
It was scheduled to be launched on October 1st, but it was postponed to October 25th. At its launch, there was a ceremony in Abuja where 3 media houses were invited and no questions taken.
The eNairas are within mobile wallets, where they hold the same value as the Naira. They took an hybrid CBDC architecthure approach, where the CBN controls the eNaira payment system and manages the wallets. Managing this implies a significant operational overhead, as the CBN is acting as a commercial bank in this transactions.
CBN made a wallet for individuals and one for merchants available on the Google and Apple stores. However, they did not seem to be working properly and after many Android users left complaints, it was taken down from the Google store.
Source Recommendation: get.Africa
get.Africa is a weekly newsletter on African tech, in an understandable language. It is written by Chiagoziem, and includes a weekly roundup with the most relevant stories in African tech.
In this weekly roundup, he dives deep in an event, includes relevant startup deals, recommends good reads and podcasts around African tech. He also has a YouTube channel where he posts short videos on relevant topics.
You can read get.Africa here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/getafrica