The United Nations reports that Kenya has the highest proportion of people holding cryptocurrencies in Africa beating countries such as Nigeria.
A report by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says that 8.5 per cent of the population or 4.25 million people own cryptocurrencies in the country.
This places Kenya ahead of developed economies such as the United States, which is ranked sixth with 8.3 percent of its population owning digital currencies.
War-torn Ukraine is ranked top, with 12.7 percent share of its population with cryptocurrencies, followed by Russia (11.9 percent), Venezuela (10.3 percent) and Singapore (9.4 percent).
Kenya is also a top Bitcoin maximalist country globally, topping bitcoin search interest at 94.7%. Kenya also ranks within the top ten worldwide on the topic of “cryptocurrency” on Google.
“During the pandemic, the already high costs of traditional remittance services rose even higher during lockdown periods due to related disruptions,” the report says.
Cryptocurrency in Africa has picked a lot of steam in the last few years.
From Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Botswana, Ghana to the largest yet struggling part of Africa-Kenya. It is not surprising to know how Kenyans have made whopping profits out of cryptocurrency trading without migrating to any other country.
The Central Bank of Kenya has made a decision to switch to bitcoin as a reserve currency. The apex bank’s decision comes from its efforts to resolve the growing financial problem in the country, media reports said. Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge said that the decision was taken after considering a host of factors such as shortage of foreign currency reserves and increase in velocity of money.
In addition, transition to the use of bitcoin as a reserve currency could also protect the country from exploitative loans that could hurt its sovereignty.
