Farida Nabourema addressing participants
PLAYERS IN Africa’s bitcoin industry have advocated its adoption considering its enormous benefits especially in transacting the payment of goods and services across borders in the sub-region.
Speaking in an interview with a section of journalists at the 2nd Africa Bitcoin Conference held in Accra, recently, convener of the conference, Farida Nabourema, said though many people have adopted the use of bitcoin, there were still scores of Africans who were still uninformed about the role of bitcoin on the digital economy.
She, therefore, advised Africans to embrace the digital currency considering its advantages in an era where businesses could be transacted in real time regardless of geographical location.
“The beautiful thing about bitcoin is that it is a bottom up technology, it is not a top bottom technology, and the adoption of bitcoin has been genuine at all levels. People have adopted it because it has worked for them. Bitcoin is an open source technology that cannot be shut down, it is technology that does not belong to anybody, it cannot be confiscated as a technology that has others built on it,” Ms Nabourema explained.
She added bitcoin, also had several trading platforms that offered different solutions like digital foreign bureaus where currencies were exchanged on a digital platform without any difficulty.
She continued that unlike the traditional payment system which was characterised by various intermediaries during business transactions, bitcoin technology operated on a technology that gave opportunities to individuals and businesses to access financial services.
“We operate on a colonial financial system that was built at a time when Africa was just about 200 million people, but today the continent has a population of 1.2 billion people; there is now a continent where trade is boosting but a lot of them operating on a black market,” she said.
Emily Chiu, chief operating officer of TBD, on her part, said given the vast patronage of bitcoin and the emergence of both legacy payment systems and government currencies as well as new, decentralised payment systems, currencies, and digital assets, tbDEX, as a decentralised bitcoin exchange, would help bridge these new technologies with established systems without requiring people to abandon the financial tools they use today.
According to the organisers, the conference has not only empowered individuals to make informed decisions but would go a long way to enable people understand the principles of bitcoin, digitalisation and financial sovereignty.
Wolali Ahlijah, co-convener and director of operations for the conference, in his opening remarks, also stated that the African bitcoin conference served as a living proof that Africa was not just a participant in technological revolution but a catalyst to help drive change, challenge perceptions and pave the way for a future with limitless innovation.
Other speakers included the founder of Ghana dot com, Prof. Nii Quaynor, Bitcoin Open Source Contributor, Ambition Uttawar, Board member of Btrust and CEO of FEDI, Obi Nwosu and Executive Director for Bitcoin for Fairness, Anita Posch.
The three day event, which started on Friday, December 1, ended on Sunday. It brought together businesses, investors and bitcoin miners from various parts of the world.
BY Ebenezer K. Amponsah