thoughts about pesa and the people of East Africa. From cryptocurrencies to cash and everything in between.
Africa’s most popular mobile browser, Opera is about to radically change the payments landscape in Africa.
Last week’s SEC’s disclosure on Opera’s newest investor for their $115 million IPO, was the best strategic news on cryptocurrency ‘adoption’ in Africa I have seen in the last 5 years with far reaching implications on e-commerce, trade and payments for the region than appears at first glance.
My choice of a header image above accurately captures increasing Chinese influence on Kenya and Africa, at both state and commercial level.
Mshwari & Mpesa is only half the story. The rest of it is happening offline, in cash and trust networks
Don’t get me wrong, the efforts by the Kenyan financial inclusion industry have not gone unnoticed. Without naming specifics, the industry’s greatest feat by far is building a wide accessible network for formal financial services.
But access is only one item on a long list. It doesn’t matter how many bank accounts you give to the poor. Heck, even throw in a bitcoin cryptocurrency bank account – 2 mobile banks, 5 traditional bank accounts and 2 cryptocurrency bank accounts. Access means nothing when you can’t put money in people’s pockets. I speak for all when I say Kenyan people want to be empowered, they want more pesa in their pockets period. And that’s ok!
So when I criticize the industry, I mean well.
If you’ve been up and about in Kenya, you will appreciate how pesa will almost always positively correlate to some sort of biashara opportunity and even more likely one in the informal sector
My assertion is there is an overall failure by Kenya’s financial inclusion industry to look beyond the digital personas of the people of East Africa’s informal economy. Whereas, much of their lives unravel offline in cash, trust and biashara networks.
Continue reading “How Kenya’s Digital Financial Inclusion Industry Is Failing Women Entrepreneurs”
Pesa is dynamic. We need look no further than Nairobi for 5 types of pesa in Kenya you’re likely to have come across.
Pesa is dynamic.
One of my favorite projects in Kenya is Bangla Pesa. Besides being greatly underappreciated as an example of how to empower rural and informal communities, its perception is a great example of the miseducation of pesa. Back in 2013 the members of this community currency project were arrested and paraded in the media as secessionists out to overthrow the national government.
Of course it was but a clear case of misunderstanding, like so many out-of-the-box ideas in Kenya.
When thinking about pesa, you gotta loosen up. We need look no further than Nairobi for 5 types of pesa in Kenya you’re likely to have come across.
Bitcoin ATMs in Nairobi are only a great idea on paper. Electronic ATMs have lost to human agents in Kenya
I get it. Bitcoin ATMs are cool. You can walk up to a machine, insert cash and instantly get cryptocurrency. But Bitcoin ATMs in Nairobi are only a great idea on paper.
For cryptocurrencies to take off – for whatever use cases – people need a way to exchange their regular pesa in and out of the system. There is no way around this. It is the only way to bridge access and grow adoption. Calls for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ATMs in Kenya and Africa typically stem from this access gap.
Unfortunately, this idea in Kenya and East Africa is dead on arrival.
The evolution of banking in nations, like Hong Kong, the US or the UK, took a vastly different form compared to East Africa’s much talked about mobile banking phenomenon. Any successful models for cryptocurrency adoption in East Africa have to be informed by local contexts. For starters, taking notes from existing digital money systems.
Agent networks – henceforth human ATMs – are the key to unlocking access.
Continue reading “Why Bitcoin ATMs in Kenya are Dead on Arrival”
