Over the past year, Africa has been widely reported as the next crypto frontier, helped by an under-developed infrastructure and a heavily fragmented digital payments ecosystem, making it a strong vector for virtual currencies and crypto-based remittance payments.
A recent report from blockchain research and analytics firm Chainalysis revealed that Africa’s cryptocurrency market grew by over 1,200% in terms of value received in the past year, with the firm estimating that African countries collectively received about $105.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency between July 2020 and June 2021.
It is no surprise, then, that one of Africa’s leading technology companies, Interswitch, has made blockchain technology a key part of its growth strategy.
According to Mitchell Elegbe, the firm’s founder and CEO, Interswitch’s foray into blockchain started several years ago. Back in 2018, the company partnered with Microsoft to develop a blockchain-powered supply chain finance solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in its home market of Nigeria.
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“We have noticed that blockchain technology as a concept could potentially solve lots of challenges — not only in payments, but also in other adjacent industries,” Elegbe said, adding that the technology is quite solid and lends itself to different challenges “that should be disrupted.”
To further tap into the market value of the blockchain market, the pan-African digital payments and commerce firm recently partnered with Interstellar, an Africa-focused blockchain organization, to develop blockchain-powered infrastructure services and solutions across Africa.
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