During an African Bitcoin conference, AfroBitcoin, in Ghana’s capital city of Accra, Jack Mallers, CEO of global money app Strike, announced that the Bitcoin payments company has partnered with the mobile app Bitnob to facilitate payments into Africa, specifically in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. According to a report on Cointelegraph.com, on stage at AfroBitcoin, Mallers announced plans to improve remittance payments into Africa thanks to Bitcoin’s scaling solution Lightning Network, the layer-2 payments network built atop the network, with Bitnob introducing a new feature called “Send Globally,” which enables instant, low-cost payments to Africa.
The Send Globally feature, the news outlet explains, does not require people to use Bitcoin (BTC), Bitnob CEO Bernard Parah noted on stage, while the no-transaction-fee feature is currently available to Americans sending funds to Africans in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. In comparison, remittance services such as Wise take a small commission, while Western Union can charge upward of 10% for money transfers, as highlighted by Cointelegraph. Through the integration with Strike, Bitnob dollar payments are instantly converted to Nigerian naira, Ghanaian cedi or Kenyan shillings and are deposited diretly in a recipient’s bank account, mobile money wallet or Bitnob account, as mentioned by the news outlet.
Solving cross-border payments into Africa using Bitcoin would be a major boost to local economies, Cointelegraph explains, citing that, in Nigeria alone, $17.2 billion was sent in remittances to the country in 2020, while, according to World Bank data, “for every $200 send in 2020, it cost the sender $17.8 (8.9%),” which equated to roughly $1.5 billion lost in fees, or about the amount of Samoa’s gross domestic product. According to the news outlet, if Nigeria were to eliminate remittance fees by using Bitcoin payment rails, Nigerians across the country would benefit financially, as well as those in Kenya and Ghana, where thousands from the diaspora live in the U.S. and regularly send money overseas.
Mallers, which said the Lightning Network has “just achieved dollars to Naira, Naira to dollars,” as published by Cointelegraph, compared the instant peer-to-peer payment service to PayPal’s Venmo app that allows rapid, frictionless payments between U.S. customers. To conclude, the news outlet points out how the advancement is currently only available to Americans sending money to those living in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, which are English-speaking countries in Africa, although the rollout is set to continue across Africa going forward, while remittance is one of the many reasons why crypto usage in Africa has surged in recent years.
- DuringAfroBitcoinConferenceInGhanaAfrica’sCapitalCityOfAccraJackMallersCEOofGlobalMoneyAppStrikeAnnouncesItsNewPartnershipWithRegionalMobileAppBitnobToFacilitatePaymentsIntoAfricaIncludingGhana/KenyaAndNigeriaMadePossibleThanksToBitcoin’sLightningNetworkIntegration
- ThroughTheCollaborationBitnobHasIntroducedThisNewFeatureDubbedSendGloballyWhichEnablesInstantLowCostPaymentsToAfricaWhichDoesNotEvenRequirePepleToUseBitcoin(BTC)WhileTheNoTransactionFeeIsNowAvailableToAmericansSendingFundsToAfricansInNigeria/GhanaAndKenya
- ThroughTheIntegrationWithStrikeBitnobDollarPaymentsAreInstantlyConvertedToNigerianNaira/GhanaianCediOrKenyanShillingsAndAreDespostedDirectlyInReceipient’sBankAccounts/MobileMoneyWalletsOrBitnobAccounts;AfricanCrossBorderPaymentsUsingBitcoinWouldHelpBoostLocalEconomies
https://cointelegraph.com/news/strike-partners-with-bitnob-to-facilitate-cross-border-payments-into-africa