Why Nigeria is Africa’s biggest Crypto market

Nigerians are fast adopting the world’s most popular crypto – Bitcoin, as their mainstream for payments and wealth preservation. Thus, setting the pace for other African countries – as it leads the whole African continent combined in the use of Bitcoin via transactions turnover.

Then, it becomes unsurprising to see leading crypto brands like Binance, Paxful, FTX, Crypto.com, printing their labels in Nigeria, as it is apparently one of the fastest-growing crypto markets in the ever-changing world.

READ: Coalition of African lawmakers seeks debt relief for African states

According to a new study seen by Nairametrics, Nigeria has seen the largest influx of activity in peer-to-peer lending in the month of October.

What you should know

Data obtained from usefultulips, a BTC analytic data provider showed Nigeria leads Africa’s peer to peer lending in the month of October 2020, as it posted monthly P2P volumes of between $32.5 million, followed by South Africa and Kenya posting about $9million and $7.4 million respectively.

READ: #EndSARS: Access Bank announces N50 billion interest-free facility for businesses

What they are saying

Ekene Ojieh, Head Of Public Relations, Buffalo Chase, a fast-growing crypto analytic firm, attributed the upward trend in the adoption of cryptos – most especially Bitcoin, to Nigeria’s demographic structure.

“Nigeria ranks 8th position in the largest country with crypto adoption. The reasons for this fact are not far-fetched.

“The Nigerian youth has about 32% of the entire population of about 200 million people.

READ: COVID-19: IMF Chief predicts $345 billion financing gap in African countries 

“It’s easy for a young country like Nigeria to adopt the use of bitcoin because a large percentage of its population falls within the age range that is tech-savvy. Although, that’s not the only reason why many Nigerian youths adopt bitcoin.

“Nigerian youths prefer to secure their assets in bitcoin or stablecoins because naira like every other fiat currency is susceptible to inflation.

“The borderless feature of bitcoin makes payment effortless and transaction fee outrageously low.

READ: CBN reveals framework for the N75 billion Youth Investment Fund

“In the recent protest in Nigeria, we saw the sharp switch to bitcoin after the movement’s bank account was frozen making up to about 44% of the entire donation.

“Bitcoin gained an impressive 13.7% over week 43 – as per Glassnode. Bitcoin is currently traded at a $13,000 region. With the accessibility of bitcoin, we see more Nigerian youths adopting the use of bitcoin.”

READ: Rich Bitcoin investor moved $175 million worth of BTC for just $0.84

It’s also critical to note that a significant number of Nigerian youths, amid #EndSARS protest that had triggered police reforms, got help from Bitcoin, on the principle that its payments were secured and had no central authority, which could breach payment. The funds were consequently used in aiding and providing medical and legal bills for some youths who had peacefully set out for such cause and got arrested in that period.

Another thing that surely stood out in the just concluded #EndSARS protest and got the rare limelight in the crypto-verse, is a Nigerian female rights group better known as the Feminist Coalition, a non-governmental organization originally created to push for gender equality in Nigeria, used the power of crypto technology in disbursing funds for injured protesters, food, water, first aid supplies – that the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey had to lend his support.

READ: Togo, Niger, Benin remit N2.04 billion to Nigeria for power supply

READ: Tether opens up 300,000,000 USDT

Dorsey tweeted, “Donate via Bitcoin to help #EndSARS,” while also retweeting a tweet by the Feminist Coalition informing Nigerians of how to support the fast-changing female right group.

Donate via #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS ?? https://t.co/kf305SFXze

— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020

Bottom line

Nigerian millennials are fast adapting to the most ever-changing financial asset in the modern era and leading brands are also taking advantage of such prevailing macro.