Africa is considered to be the backward and dark continent, but that doesn’t stop Africans from embracing Bitcoin. Numerous reports have revealed that people on this continent are investing in it to improve their lifestyle. In this article, we will look into the life of Godfrey Kabaka Mumpe – a young African and how Bitcoin changed his life.

Poor Lifestyle in Africa

Most of the countries in Africa are under-developed while facing high inflation. Unemployment is also considered to be a major issue in most of the African countries. We can take Uganda for example and the major issue in this country is poverty. 60% of the people are poor and in that 30% are extremely poor, not able to afford basic amenities like food and clothing. The standard of living is worse in this nation compared to most other countries in the world. The country is even excluded from several world statistics since they are poorest of poor countries.

Bitcoin helping young Africans

Godfrey Kabaka Mumpe – a young lecturer in Uganda, has earned money in Bitcoin that is equivalent to 10 years of his salary as a teacher. He says that getting a job in Uganda is not easy, and that’s why Bitcoin is helping them in improving their lifestyle.

Tech-savvy people like him are helping to spread the word about Bitcoin and how the currency will help in reshaping their lives and the society as a whole. Salaried Africans like Godfrey are buying Bitcoins using their monthly salary and those who are jobless are using the high volatility of the asset as an opportunity to trade the currency to gain more.

Gospel of Bitcoin

There are many meetups in Kampala, the capital of Uganda that is now being referred to as the “Gospel of Bitcoin”. In one of the meetups, Godfrey explained to others how Bitcoin helped improve his lifestyle; and how he was able to enroll his children in an international school because of the profit he made with Bitcoin. He also mentioned his holidays in Dubai and how Bitcoin helped his ailing father.

Difficulty in Understanding

Godfrey recalls how he found it difficult to make his family understand this new technology. His initial days in building confidence in his family about Bitcoin was quite challenging. His relatives declared that he had gone insane when he tried to bring his cousins on board to buy Bitcoin. He was fond of the mathematics behind blockchain, but his fellow citizens are only focused on money instead of the technology.

Regulations by African Governments

Uganda’s central bank has alarmed their citizens about the dangers of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. It feels that the new asset class is highly risky since it is not protected by the regulators. Uganda is not the only African country to give the warning; Kenya and Nigeria have also warned their citizens to stay away from buying virtual currencies.

Namibia went one step further to ban the use of cryptocurrencies for commercial purpose. On the other hand, there are other African countries that are embracing the use of digital countries. One such example is Tunisia that is about to launch their own digital currency running on blockchain technology. The most developed country in Africa is South Africa, and they are researching this technology to determine its feasibility; and how it can be adopted by different departments in their government. Recently, the crypto search trend also picked up considerably in that country.

Bitcoin Making Life Easier

Bitcoin is making the lives of many Africans easier in terms of convenient online payments anywhere in the world. Birungi is the registered exchange which helps in exchange of local currency in four countries: namely Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria. The money is sent to their mobile wallets directly or to their bank accounts through wire transfer, so transacting in Bitcoin is very easy.

Online transaction fees are very high in Uganda, so Bitcoin is an effective and efficient way for easier and faster transactions that helps in avoiding exorbitant transaction fees of traditional online payment systems. Many young Africans prefer buying Bitcoin instead of other traditional assets like land or gold. They see this as an asset that will grow in value over time due to the limited supply of Bitcoin.

It is fascinating to see how young Africans are embracing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and how it is uplifting their lifestyle. Bitcoin could help eradicate poverty in Africa to some extent as the value of the currency grows. Adoption of cryptocurrencies is quickly growing in Africa; more so than on the more developed continents.