Crypto in Africa: Luno hiring in Africa and the adoption in Zimbabwe

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Luno, one of the largest investors in the world, will be hiring from Africa to build their software development team. In other news, experts are encouraging Zimbabwe to adopt cryptocurrency use in the country.

Luno starts hiring in Africa

Luno, Naspers’ cryptocurrency platform, is seeking to support the African market. The Luno platform will be increasing its labor force by about 60%, as projected by Bloomberg. The firm is giving priority to African states as they start to meet their hiring objectives.

Naspers Ltd, who’s offices are based in South Africa, is looking to hire about 150 employees in the year 2019 to be a part of the company’s software development team. By adding the staff, they will now have a workforce of 400. This number accounts for all their employees in all their seven offices, which are spread across three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe.

According to Luno’s general manager for Africa, Marius Reitz, the company is looking for business clients alongside individual investors. He adds that their platform will also add to the number of cryptocurrencies they can trade in their portfolio.

In an interview, Reitz stated that a larger percentage of the new employees would operate from Johannesburg, the regional headquarters for Africa. Many of the new employees will be responsible for maintaining security and compliance aspects. 

South Africa’s Rand has shown volatility, which is of great concern for investors. As such, investors are leaning towards investing in cryptocurrency. As Africa’s biggest company in crypto exchange, Nasper’s Luno has attracted more than $3 million in funding in the year 2015, just three years into operations.

During the opening of the Johannesburg office, Marcus Swanepoel, the CEO of Luno said, “We are investing significant double-digit millions in U.S. dollars in the Johannesburg office, as we see an opportunity for a lot of growth across Africa…. Johannesburg is the main financial center in Africa and a getaway to other African countries. In addition, to having many African-related business functions in Johannesburg, we are also launching our third engineering office.”

In Africa, Luno is also operating in Nigeria.

Cryptocurrency adoption in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is facing monetary problems as the value of the Zimbabwean dollar depreciates. This is because of foreign currency shortages, and worsened by an unstable Zimbabwean currency.

In a statement, Oswald Mungule, Zambia’s National Economic Advisory Council, insists that Zimbabwe should adopt the strategy that the World Bank used as it invested in Tether (USDT). Tether is a stablecoin, imitating the value of the U.S. dollar with a ratio of 1 to 1. In Mungule’s statement, he said:

“Zimbabwe should just look for an underlying asset to base the cryptocurrency. The country can create a cyber currency using stable coins for bigger companies to make international payments and can peg this on gold or diamond, which have a stable value.”

Mungule further encourages the government to participate in cryptocurrency markets actively. The government should be at the forefront of promoting innovation and providing the necessary support for the market. It can give support by providing a friendly regulatory environment, from which they stand to benefit by taxing transactions.

Zimbabwe, among other countries, has maintained that cryptocurrency is illegal because they promote bank tax evasion. Experts, on the other hand, believe that cryptocurrency is a legit medium of exchange for the future, considering that they fulfill specific features of money such as divisibility, durability, scalability, and transferability.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, president of Zimbabwe initially announced that they were working on a six-step process that would eventually have them establish their currency. Rather than taking this route, Mungule points out the benefits of adopting cryptocurrency. The government can get taxes as long as they implement transparent and clear strategies. In addition, cryptocurrency can quicken international transactions.

The citizens of Zimbabwe are suffering from exorbitant fees and deductions by banks and money mobile operators. The crunch should push for a more stable medium of exchange.