When asked about how cryptocurrency can impact Africa, Electroneum founder and CEO Richard Ells said the continent is “the perfect grounds for the use of cryptocurrency.”
In an interview with CoinGeek. Ells said he sees cryptocurrency taking off in Africa because the nascent industry brings wealth to the region. “Instead of going into some archaic financial method, they can jump straight into digital payments with crypto,” he explained.
A notable aspect of the interview with Ells involved how cryptocurrency regulations function in Africa. He described the regulations in Africa as “largely a grey area,” with some countries labelling cryptocurrency as illegal while other have already embraced it.
The Electroneum CEO also pointed out the lack of enlightenment on the part of some countries in the region, saying there are government that are scared of cryptocurrencies especially Bitcoin because it can drain money from the country’s economy. However, staying away from cryptocurrencies denies such nations some benefits because cryptocurrency brings in money as taxable revenue. Thus, increasing their GDP.
Finally, Richard Ells shared some pieces of advice on how African countries can regulate cryptocurrency, which he said is a difficult task. Firstly, he said that KYC information is very important. Also, he said mobile money projects like M-Pesa must reveal information like how much money, number of transactions and balances in the system.
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