Adrian has a conversation this week with Carlita Cash, the founder of Afri+Tech, a business focused on educating Africans on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
As a crypto enthusiast and educator, she is passionate about helping people in Ghana and other African countries build generational wealth through these innovative technologies. While based in Canada, she is committed to bridging the gap between North America and Africa, and helping Africans embrace the world of decentralization.
Follow Carlita Cash on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cashcarlita
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
05:08 Ghana emerging as cryptocurrency and blockchain hub.
08:12 Exploring Ghana, business trip, networking, cultural appreciation.
10:56 Founding a business in cryptocurrency, focusing on education.
13:33 Deep connection to Africa, strive for change.
16:48 Supporting communities through education and job opportunities.
22:29 Promoting startups and seeking investment for growth.
24:22 Ghanaians skeptical about cryptocurrency, need more education.
28:07 Emerging opportunity in African cryptocurrency market.
31:19 Adapting to different paces and cultures when traveling.
33:40 Power of networking in Ghana for success.
37:05 Outro
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00:00:00
Hello there, everyone. Welcome to the a conversation series on the
00:00:03
Sound of a Crowd podcast. This is the stand alone season series where we
00:00:07
explore the lives, journeys, and celebrate the success of individuals
00:00:11
from a Ghanaian heritage or interest in short and sweet episodes.
00:00:15
Today, I'm joined with Carlita, who is the founder of Afri Plus Tech.
00:00:19
Is that correct? Yeah. Yes. That's right.
00:00:23
Brilliant. Yeah. So always gonna make sure I get the fine details, you know, all
00:00:27
correct. Well, thank you for coming on, Carlita. How are you doing?
00:00:31
Great. Great. I'm here back in Canada. I'm doing well.
00:00:35
Thank you. And cold, nice and brisk, and was it heating up?
00:00:39
You know what? It's actually warmer than usual. We've hit some record
00:00:43
warmness, since since I've been back. So I brought back
00:00:47
the sun from Ghana, I think. Brilliant. Brilliant. Must be a little bit of
00:00:50
climate change happening over there. Yeah. I think Canada Canada the thing about
00:00:54
Canada, whenever I'm I'm over there, it's usually very hot summers, very cold
00:00:58
winters, and I wouldn't be part of the winter. It's just too much for me.
00:01:01
You know? Getting lost in It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:05
It's not for me. Just keep me here in Ghana. That's
00:01:09
it. Keep me here in Ghana. That's right. So yeah.
00:01:13
Well, thank you for having not having. Sorry. Thank you for coming on the
00:01:17
show. I believe I just kind of I think just as I kind
00:01:20
of found out about you, I think I just missed you more or less. You
00:01:23
were just kind of getting ready to head back to, Canada.
00:01:27
But whilst you were here in Ghana, I think you you did quite a bit
00:01:30
in terms of, you know, like, going on media tours and things like that.
00:01:35
For those for for those people that don't know who you are and what you
00:01:38
do, just give us just give the the listeners a quick 60 second
00:01:41
elevate pitch in terms of what Carlita does and who she is.
00:01:45
Absolutely. Thank you, Adrienne. So I'm Carlita Cash.
00:01:49
I have a business called Afri Tech. So those who don't
00:01:53
know, like you said, Afri Plus Tech. So what I
00:01:56
do, I'm just a crypto enthusiast,
00:02:00
crypto educator, I love to come to Africa, specifically
00:02:04
Ghana, and teach people how to utilize blockchain
00:02:08
technology, cryptocurrency, and
00:02:11
build a generational wealth. So I'm back here
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in Canada, so I'm trying to merge the gap between North America and
00:02:18
Africa. And, you know, yeah, help,
00:02:22
help Africans get into this new world of of
00:02:26
decentralization essentially. Absolutely. I mean, this is
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where, you know, everything is going these days, and, you know,
00:02:33
it's something very important. I feel like there is gonna be a
00:02:36
seismic shift in terms of world world economies and you
00:02:40
know, blockchain, web 3, and crypto is something that we all do all need to
00:02:44
be look keeping our eyes out for. Just before I kind of dive
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deep into, you know, what you're doing in that space and how you're trying to
00:02:51
connect the dots, you know, internationally,
00:02:55
yeah, Carlita Cash, is that is that your surname? Is that your nickname?
00:02:58
Or That's my crypto name. It's a good
00:03:02
name. I like that. That's my crypto name. It's got a nice ring to it.
00:03:06
Cardita Cash. Yeah. Alliteration. Yes.
00:03:11
Okay. Let's let's let's let's keep this conversation
00:03:14
flowing, Karlita. So, so there was a there was an interview
00:03:18
that came out a while ago with. So he's a pretty strong
00:03:22
evangelist here in Ghana in terms of the web free space. And,
00:03:26
I mean, I saw an interview with him and Dentar, who's quite a well known
00:03:29
personality here in Ghana. And they had a conversation about, Web 3 and
00:03:33
crypto and the blockchains. And one interesting thing he said,
00:03:37
Khalita, was that, he feels that Africa
00:03:41
or Ghana per se is ready for, you know, the web free, the blockchain,
00:03:44
the crypto because you have the likes of Google. You know, they they have their
00:03:48
they've got their headquarters in in Accra. Twitter was here, but, of
00:03:52
course, that's that's you know, they've come and packed up their bags because of
00:03:55
Elon, you know, doing what he's doing. And, you know, you got other, you know,
00:03:59
tech companies, you know, that have established themselves in Ghana. So there's a lot
00:04:02
happening, you know, in the space. And I think just off the call, I mentioned
00:04:06
Jack Dorsey, you know, comes to Ghana quite a bit. And, you know, he he
00:04:09
always he always finds himself in the at the Africa Bitcoin conference, which
00:04:13
runs every early December for for a few days.
00:04:17
YG4, Ghana, or Africa per se is ready for for crypto,
00:04:20
Bitcoin. I mean, sorry, Web 3, blockchain, you know, all of all of
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these new technologies, these emerging technologies. Mhmm.
00:04:28
Mhmm. So that's a great question. I think to be
00:04:32
honest, I think Ghana, and I think Africa on a whole,
00:04:35
almost doesn't have a choice but to get into
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this this market to the industry. The market is so fresh.
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I like to tell people that we're still in the beta
00:04:48
series of blockchain crypto.
00:04:52
There's only under 1% of the world who's even invested into
00:04:56
cryptocurrency, so we're still in the early stages, and I
00:04:59
believe that the market is amazing in Ghana. I believe
00:05:03
that, there's there are quite a few startups in Ghana.
00:05:08
It's still an up and emerging industry there where a lot
00:05:11
of people are curious. I know last summer, University
00:05:15
of Ghana just started their blockchain 1st blockchain
00:05:19
course, so I know they're trying to integrate it,
00:05:22
they're trying to get the youth, the youth actually already are interested in
00:05:26
it, there some people are trading, some people are investing
00:05:30
into cryptocurrency specifically, and, I think
00:05:33
it's just a great market, and it's a place where people are starting to see
00:05:37
that cryptocurrency and blockchain is is allowing
00:05:41
Africans, allowing Ghanaians to have an even playing
00:05:44
field with the rest of the world now. When you look at Dubai,
00:05:48
Dubai is the hub of crypto right now. Ghana can be like
00:05:51
Dubai, you know, it's it's there's very large
00:05:55
possibility of that happening here. There's so many natural resources
00:05:59
here, and so, encompassing that
00:06:02
with the industries that are already there is gonna help the market, it's
00:06:06
gonna help the different industries to grow and, and
00:06:10
be powerful. Yeah. There's a very
00:06:13
interesting comment you made, Carlita. Yeah. I feel like where the economy is
00:06:17
going, where the government's going, where banks are moving as well. Banks
00:06:21
are moving a lot more digital, I've noticed in Ghana as
00:06:24
well, even the the phone companies as well. I
00:06:28
think, you know, some of these mobile money transfer platforms as
00:06:31
well, you could see them kind of moving into crypto in the
00:06:35
future. You could kind of see that transition there. It's mentioned
00:06:39
is it quite interesting you mentioned, you know, you could see or per se
00:06:43
as, you know, being like another Dubai. Because I think
00:06:46
during the 2020, 2021 lockdown period,
00:06:50
what you found was people that weren't able to make money
00:06:54
through the usual means, they actually got out their phones. They
00:06:58
started down down within, you know, apps like Binance or what have you or the
00:07:01
equivalent in Ghana and Africa, and they were actually able to make money through, you
00:07:05
know, buying, selling, trading crypto. So, yeah.
00:07:09
I think, you know, the the interesting thing about going Africa is that a lot
00:07:12
of people have smartphones. And once you can get on the Internet, you
00:07:15
know, the rest is history. Mhmm. Mhmm.
00:07:19
Exactly. Mhmm. Okay. Cool. So, I mean, speaking of Ghana, I mean,
00:07:23
you you of course, let's let's talk about your your trip to Ghana, your
00:07:27
recent trip to Ghana, actually. So we're now in February 2024 as we're
00:07:31
recording this episode. Tell us a bit about your trip to Ghana,
00:07:35
and, if this was your first time and, what you got up to during this
00:07:39
particular trip. Yes. So it's been my
00:07:42
4th trying to, time to Ghana. I absolutely
00:07:46
loved it. The other times the first time I went, I stayed about 2
00:07:50
months, and absolutely loved it. This trip, I
00:07:54
got to say about 5 weeks, and, it was
00:07:57
really nice. This trip, I got to actually explore a little more.
00:08:01
I got to go to, Cape Coast. I got to
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visit the slave castles, and this
00:08:09
trip was very meaningful to me.
00:08:12
You know, the first time I came to Ghana, it was trying to explore Ghana
00:08:16
and and first time actually in Africa, and
00:08:19
so, it was amazing opportunity. So the first
00:08:23
time was, okay, let me kinda test out the waters and see how it is.
00:08:28
Get to enjoy December and and, the
00:08:32
festivities, concerts, and so this trip was more of a
00:08:36
business trip for me. And to kind of delve into the
00:08:39
market a little more, to meet people, and to network,
00:08:43
I I did a lot of networking, which was great, and,
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I got to visit the Jubilee House as well. I was really, really
00:08:51
excited about that, and I really got to
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see the history and visited Independence
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Square so and I realized there's there's so much opportunity in
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Ghana especially when it comes to tourism, I could see
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the the door opening there especially when it comes to North Americans,
00:09:09
I see a lot of Americans coming to Ghana but not as many
00:09:13
Canadians, So I'm trying to I'd love to kinda get more
00:09:16
Canadians to see, like myself,
00:09:20
the the beauty of the culture and the history and the
00:09:24
people. And so that's what I really got to do this time around, and it
00:09:27
was it was fantastic. It was amazing. Abs absolutely
00:09:31
fantastic. It sounds like quite an accomplished busy trip as
00:09:34
well. It sounds like you packed in a lot in 5 weeks, you know, networking,
00:09:38
business business, touring, travel, enjoyment as well. Of
00:09:41
course, you can't come here without enjoyment. You know? So glad you've got to
00:09:45
pack in as what you did. Sounds like a a well, you
00:09:48
know, you know, a well deserved and, you know, a
00:09:52
well, you know, timed used trip. But, yeah,
00:09:56
I think you are right in terms of, you know, there's a lot of Americans
00:09:59
coming. Of course, the British have been coming, you know, no pun intended for many
00:10:02
years as well. But, yeah, I think Canadians, I think we'll start to
00:10:06
see a lot more Canadians start to come as well. But I think you do
00:10:09
have quite I mean, there are quite a number of Canadians around, you know, you
00:10:13
got, like, Ivy Prosper, you know, popular YouTuber. She's around, and then she came on
00:10:16
the show last season. We've got Live in Ghana, you know, run
00:10:20
by, Frank Mensah. He's he's Canadian, and he runs, you know,
00:10:24
that, property company in Ghana. And and 54 Tours,
00:10:28
54 Gold Tours, I believe, is another Canadian based tour company in Ghana.
00:10:31
So you do have quite a few Canadians emerging, and, you know, I'm sure
00:10:35
that's just gonna go. So Yeah. I'm sure you'll find the flags from
00:10:39
Canada. That's right.
00:10:43
Yes. Mason trip. Amazing trip. So okay. Cool. Let's let's let's keep this
00:10:46
moving. So so talk tell us through AfreePlusTech
00:10:50
and tell us about, what what the business does and and your and your
00:10:54
role in it. Yeah. So, I founded this
00:10:58
business couple years ago, when I, you know,
00:11:02
got into cryptocurrency and blockchain, and I
00:11:05
was here in Canada, and I thought why not,
00:11:09
take this and expand it into Africa. So when I first came
00:11:13
to Ghana, I wasn't really I was just kinda checking out
00:11:17
the market, seeing the different startups here, asking people what they
00:11:21
thought about crypto when I first came, And then I
00:11:24
spent a week in Ghana. I went to Kenya. I went to Zambia,
00:11:29
Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Ethiopia,
00:11:33
and, just testing out the market. I actually did a a
00:11:36
conference, mini conference in Kenya, and,
00:11:40
I saw a lot of people were interested in crypto, and
00:11:44
so what Afratech really does is just educate people
00:11:48
on cryptocurrency, what is it, how they can get involved in it,
00:11:51
How they can invest in it? We don't manage people's accounts,
00:11:55
we just strictly do education, and
00:11:59
we help people understand and safeguard their crypto. You know, there's
00:12:03
so many scams out there, and so, we just help people
00:12:07
safeguard their cryptocurrency, and then
00:12:10
learn how to invest into it and where to invest into it,
00:12:14
what type of cryptocurrencies they should invest in, or, you know,
00:12:17
most likely they can invest in. And just just the
00:12:21
education part of it is really important. So we pretty much do
00:12:25
beginners, intermediate, and advanced teaching,
00:12:30
and so people can kinda take it step by step,
00:12:33
learning the very basics of cryptocurrency and blockchain,
00:12:37
and how to, encompass it and include it in their day
00:12:41
to day, their lives. So yeah. It's it's
00:12:44
it's, and we also do conferences as well. So starting in
00:12:48
August of this year, we're gonna be doing a conference in
00:12:52
in Accra, Ghana, and then moving to,
00:12:56
Gambia, Uganda, Nigeria as well. So we're gonna be
00:13:00
doing conferences and and more so moving into the the bigger
00:13:03
conferences around Africa. So, so everybody can stay
00:13:07
tuned to that. We're gonna be giving some updates and whatnot.
00:13:11
That's brilliant, Carly. It's really great to hear. So it really sounds like
00:13:15
you're really passionate about, you know, evangelizing, you know, crypto,
00:13:18
you know, to Africa. What is it about Africa that appeals to you,
00:13:22
you know, the most rather than other continents that you could have, you know, gone
00:13:25
ahead and done what you're doing even in Canada, North America? What
00:13:29
is it about Africa per se that really appeals to you? Yeah.
00:13:33
So my whole life have always been very Afrocentric.
00:13:37
I I consider myself a Pan African, individual.
00:13:42
You know, I have no direct ties to Africa, but, like, because I am
00:13:46
a black woman, I know my roots are in Africa. I don't know where
00:13:49
yet. I, you know, still need to do that,
00:13:53
but I I know it's really important to me
00:13:57
to see my people, you know, as a as a
00:14:00
whole, develop and grow and and get into the
00:14:04
markets, and and I know we've suffered a lot all over the
00:14:08
world being an African dysphoria individual,
00:14:11
we've suffered all over the world and so I said, you know what, I need
00:14:15
to take this to Africa to make a difference and
00:14:19
for us to build build wealth, you know, we have so many
00:14:22
natural resources that, we've been countries have been taken
00:14:26
advantage of, on a large scale and continue to
00:14:30
do so to this day, when we look at places like
00:14:34
Congo and and Sudan and and whatnot, and
00:14:37
so I said, you know what? Why not give people something that they
00:14:41
can, look forward to, you know, to help
00:14:45
their lives and their future and their children and children's children,
00:14:49
and so I said you know what I have to have to do this and
00:14:52
my whole goal is essentially to move to Africa and
00:14:55
to, to start a new life there and to grow and expand
00:14:59
the business and to really nurture
00:15:03
and and help, the different communities there, and to give
00:15:06
back essentially to the places where this is where my ancestors are
00:15:10
from, you know, the continent, and so, it's just my
00:15:14
duty as a black woman, a black individual to
00:15:18
to go back to where essentially I'm from. Yeah. I mean,
00:15:22
I definitely hear hear where you're coming from. I mean, I'm sure you're aware in
00:15:25
2019, the government of Ghana ran the the the year of return campaign.
00:15:29
I'm not sure if you came to Ghana during that period, but I think that
00:15:32
was pretty much the start of, you know, huge migration
00:15:36
and, you know, tourism from, you know, places like the
00:15:40
states, you know, and other countries around the world for people to come and
00:15:43
see, you know, what Ghana, you know, has to often, of course,
00:15:47
did come come home, essentially. And I guess it's
00:15:51
great to hear that more people such as yourself are looking to take that step.
00:15:54
And not only looking to take that step, but also to bring, you
00:15:58
know, skill sets and knowledge that the continent
00:16:01
needs effectively. You know? So, you know, we do need more people like
00:16:05
Dale Titus, you know, and I'm glad to hear that you you've kind of
00:16:09
joined that kind of mission alongside people like him to kind of
00:16:12
spread, you know, web free, blockchain, crypto, you know, the new
00:16:16
emerging technologies that we're gonna need to move into very, very soon, you know, as
00:16:20
we are gonna see a shift in the economy very soon. I do very believe
00:16:23
so. Okay. This is very interesting.
00:16:27
Okay. And then in terms of kind of giving back, you mentioned giving back as
00:16:31
well. Of course, you know, what you do is a consultancy. It's a business.
00:16:35
You're making money. But what does what does giving back also look look like
00:16:38
for you in terms of Africa as, you know, this is, you know, a continent
00:16:42
where we do need to, you know, help a lot of, you know, communities that
00:16:45
don't have as much? What does that look like for you? Yeah. So
00:16:49
that's a great question. I actually work with a foundation called the ADDO
00:16:53
Foundation, and where they they give back to the
00:16:57
communities. They're giving jobs, employment, to
00:17:00
especially women and children, and so in different various
00:17:04
communities in Ghana, and, you know, exploring other
00:17:08
countries as well. And so, I work with them and and try
00:17:12
to educate them as well, and, on the markets and
00:17:15
how they as women especially can get into the the
00:17:19
market. It's it's not just essentially these traditional roles that women can
00:17:23
play, but they can also get into technology
00:17:26
and, education as well. And so, I love
00:17:30
to work with different foundations and
00:17:34
charity and things like that. I think it's really important because it's
00:17:37
not just about taking and what I can get from the continent, from
00:17:41
the country, but giving back essentially and,
00:17:45
allowing people to see that they can they can do more than what is
00:17:49
set out for them in a script, you know, and
00:17:53
breaking those boundaries as well is really important. Brilliant.
00:17:56
Brilliant. I I do like I do like what you said. I mean, I think
00:17:59
there was one individual who said the other day,
00:18:03
don't go to Africa or Ghana necessarily just to just just to see
00:18:07
what you can get, but go there to see what you can give, what you
00:18:10
can learn. You know? Mhmm. Because, of course, it's a
00:18:14
different world here, different culture. And, I think the moment
00:18:18
they realize that you're there just to take what you
00:18:22
can take, you do see a different attitude. But once they
00:18:25
see that, you know, you're not there just to take, but you're there to give
00:18:29
and you're there to kinda fit in with them and then to adapt, then you
00:18:33
do see, you know you know, the warm, loving side
00:18:36
that you get from Ghanaians and maybe other Africans across across the
00:18:40
the continent. Yes. Okay, Khalita. I'm I'm enjoying
00:18:44
this conversation so far. Let's keep this conversation going. So, the word
00:18:48
crypto is is is always mentioned alongside the blockchain and the web
00:18:51
3. Do Do you wanna kind of quickly break down the differences for those that
00:18:55
don't understand? Absolutely. So,
00:18:59
what cryptocurrency is, it's essentially digital money, and the way I
00:19:02
like to break it down is, we started off with
00:19:06
bartering. So for example, you had wheat, I had goats, we'd exchange
00:19:10
one for the other, and then we went into,
00:19:14
the gold rush. Then we had metal coins, then we have
00:19:18
paper money, debit card, credit cards. A lot of people
00:19:21
use Apple Pay now, and now we just have the
00:19:25
natural progression of money into cryptocurrency. So
00:19:29
what crypto cryptocurrency is too, it's a decentralized
00:19:33
digital money. And so there there's no governance over it.
00:19:37
There's nobody that owns cryptocurrency. You
00:19:40
know, we then you have the blockchain technology
00:19:44
that, allows cryptocurrency to run. So we have
00:19:48
different markets, we have different networks, that
00:19:51
crypto runs on just a series of computers. So me sending
00:19:55
you Bitcoin or you sending me Bitcoin runs on a network.
00:19:59
And then essentially, we have web 3. So web 3
00:20:03
just essentially mean it's just the new progression of the Internet.
00:20:06
So before we used to what we still use, I
00:20:10
don't like to to age myself, but I tell people,
00:20:15
I don't remember know if you remember something called Ask Jeeves. Oh,
00:20:19
yeah. And so it was use that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:23
So we used to use Ask Jeeves. Now we use Google.
00:20:27
Right? And, and so web 3 is just the the natural
00:20:30
progression of of the Internet, the World Wide Web.
00:20:35
And then Web 3 is just essentially decentralization,
00:20:39
the blockchain technologies, that we can
00:20:42
utilize. I like to also talk about NFTs,
00:20:46
non fungible tokens, where
00:20:49
artists and musicians can have ownership of their own artwork
00:20:53
and music, and less governance over
00:20:57
all of these things and people having their own
00:21:01
capabilities and and and you know,
00:21:05
control of their of their stuff essentially. And
00:21:09
so that's kinda how I like to break quickly break down the
00:21:12
difference between those three things. Beautiful.
00:21:16
Beautiful. That was a very good, explanation. Thank you for sharing. Thank
00:21:20
you for sharing. And NFT is another interesting one. And there was a
00:21:23
phase, I think, maybe in 2022, 2021 where NFTs
00:21:27
were really, really hot. But now it seems like, you know, it's died down a
00:21:30
little bit. So, you know, I feel like NFTs, there's still a case for
00:21:34
it. You know, and I really feel like, you know, somewhere like Africa or
00:21:38
Ghana where there's lots of, like, arts and culture and music, You
00:21:42
know, I feel like it could be, you know, a lot of use cases for
00:21:45
NFTs in the near future. We could hopefully we we can actually see all of
00:21:49
that. There's a lot of web free
00:21:52
based startups that are merging as well. There's one I particularly
00:21:56
spoke to called Aya. Eric Nana Eric Anand's the the
00:21:59
founder of that one as well. And, you know, they wanna use basically what they
00:22:03
wanna do essentially is, raise up web free
00:22:07
talents, you know, across Africa and, you know, export their
00:22:10
skills, you know, across the world. So, you know, maybe that's kind of, like, product
00:22:14
managers, data analysts, developers, coders, and web
00:22:18
free, etcetera. Are you looking to go and maybe
00:22:21
collaborate with any startups in Africa? And, you you know, how do you see maybe
00:22:25
startups kind of taking advantage of of this kind of technology?
00:22:29
Yes. That's, that's a great question. I absolutely
00:22:33
would love to do that. And so, part of the conference that I'm doing
00:22:36
with Afratech, what we're essentially doing is we're wanting to
00:22:40
come into the different countries, different cities, and
00:22:44
showcase a lot of these startups. So, I will be
00:22:47
definitely reaching out to a lot of, the different startups in my
00:22:51
next trip to Ghana and, getting them to come out to
00:22:54
these conferences that we're doing, and showcase what they're
00:22:58
doing and essentially bring in, you know, investors, foreign investors,
00:23:02
local investors, to help them grow and to to showcase,
00:23:06
what they have to offer to Accra, to Ghana, to
00:23:10
Africa, and so it's really really I'm I'm
00:23:14
glad to hear that. I know on my first trip actually to Ghana, I
00:23:18
saw that they had some Bitcoin ATMs too,
00:23:22
in Accra. I believe there's 2 or 3 at the
00:23:25
time, and so I was really excited to see that. So there
00:23:29
there are a lot of emerging start up businesses and
00:23:33
companies, so it's great to hear and great to see, and I would love
00:23:36
to to work with a lot of them and and to showcase and to
00:23:40
grow and to to, collaborate especially.
00:23:44
Brilliant. Brilliant. Yeah. It's all exciting. Could be
00:23:48
exciting year 20 24 in terms of cryptocurrency.
00:23:52
Now we have talked a lot about decentralized currency, Carlita.
00:23:57
One thing we haven't really touched upon is centralized currency.
00:24:01
I did an episode on one of our so we have a couple of series
00:24:04
called PodBytes and Fintech Fridays, and one of the episodes
00:24:08
I did a while ago was talking about the digital city. So
00:24:12
there are talks of the the Bank of Ghana working on the digital city.
00:24:16
How concerned should Ghanaians be and should they still go ahead and invest in
00:24:20
cryptocurrency? Yeah. So I I
00:24:23
believe that, Ghanaians I I know as a
00:24:27
whole a lot of people are very skeptical
00:24:31
about cryptocurrency, something that not a lot of people,
00:24:35
are well knowledge on, they don't have they might
00:24:39
not have a lot of knowledge on it, and so what they hear,
00:24:43
you know, specifically in the news, the media, it's, you know,
00:24:47
they they there's a lot of fear about it just because there's not a lot
00:24:50
of education, and so when they do hear something, it's something
00:24:54
negative. And and so that's why I believe the education portion of
00:24:57
it is really important. It's something that,
00:25:02
when you educated on and you understand the
00:25:06
whole gist of cryptocurrency and the whole idea of
00:25:09
decentralization, it's something that's actually
00:25:12
very valuable and helpful for individuals, for people.
00:25:17
I know the banks are gonna, as we've seen, they're starting to
00:25:21
get into that digital age, and so,
00:25:25
you know, I don't like to talk negatively about the banks and whatnot.
00:25:29
I gotta be careful. But,
00:25:33
yeah, but, yeah, the you you still you're gonna be seeing a
00:25:37
lot of countries and and we have seen them already. Look at the US when
00:25:41
you, Americans are starting to have their own digital
00:25:45
currencies. Right? They're still centralized with their digital currencies,
00:25:49
and so, you have to really look into that and
00:25:53
say, okay. So if there's something negative about negative
00:25:57
about cryptocurrencies, why do we have these centralized
00:26:00
organizations creating digital,
00:26:05
money, essentially. Right? So you have to see that there's
00:26:08
something going on here. There's something that's very progressive,
00:26:13
and so, we're gonna start to see more of
00:26:16
that, more of the banks kind of collectively thinking, okay,
00:26:20
let's get on board with the a lot of these,
00:26:23
especially when you look at Binance. So for example, if you go on the
00:26:27
centralized, because essentially, it is a centralized
00:26:32
platform or exchange where you buy cryptocurrency, you're able
00:26:36
to buy purchase cryptocurrency using your fiat money,
00:26:40
and then, when you wanna cash out, you're gonna it's connected to
00:26:44
the bank. And so there's always this,
00:26:48
collaborative or merging
00:26:53
portion to all of this, right, and so you we are gonna
00:26:57
start to see a lot more of that in Ghana, I believe. The
00:27:00
banks and different organizations are gonna get on board,
00:27:04
with whether it's crypto, digital money, whether it's their
00:27:07
own or or whatnot that they're creating. We are
00:27:11
starting to see that. So I think this is a really good opportunity for
00:27:14
Ghanaians to get on board with it
00:27:18
before it gets too expensive to buy, for example,
00:27:22
Bitcoin. And so, yeah, I think these are
00:27:25
just little examples of of, you
00:27:29
know, progression in our in the society and the
00:27:33
communities on what's gonna happen. Yeah.
00:27:36
Brilliant. Yeah. It's quite interesting because, I
00:27:40
think the banks, you know, at you know, usually in the early stages, they're
00:27:44
quite, you know, open to crypto. But for
00:27:47
example, in the UK, you know, when you do want to kind of cash
00:27:51
out your your crypto, some banks are
00:27:55
against it. So some banks would try and maybe get your account to get
00:27:58
shut down or things like that. So it can be quite tight in some
00:28:02
areas, you know, especially if you're making money on crypto.
00:28:07
Yeah. But I suppose because it's an emerging area in Africa in in the
00:28:10
beginning, you know, this should be that kind of renaissance
00:28:14
period where, you know, there's gonna be a lot of, you know, upsides and, you
00:28:18
know, a lot lot to be gained, you know, but, you know, where I see
00:28:21
things going is eventually, you know, the banks
00:28:25
being a centralized, you know, type of
00:28:28
operation. You know, they might be against the decentralized because it's
00:28:32
working against them because it's Yes. Essentially competition.
00:28:36
So I think, you know, everyone needs to take advantage of what cryptocurrency can give
00:28:40
them for now. And then maybe in the future, I think things may get more
00:28:44
tightened and more influenced by the government. So it might be a bit more
00:28:47
trickier, but I feel like, you know, the time is now to really capitalize on
00:28:50
it. So, you know, I do appreciate people like yourselves, Kavita, you
00:28:54
know, coming and, you know, doing what you're doing, you know, to help Africa get
00:28:58
involved, you know, in crypto, you know, especially as it's still emerging.
00:29:02
Okay. Yeah. Brilliant. I mean, I've really enjoyed this conversation.
00:29:06
What would you say of course, you mentioned your conference, you mentioned you're come
00:29:10
you're coming down, you know, for some events. What would you say other than our
00:29:13
2024 plans for yourself and our free plus tech?
00:29:18
So the the moving to Ghana, that's essentially Okay.
00:29:22
The the biggest the biggest move. So AfriTech will fully,
00:29:26
be in in Ghana, as of later
00:29:30
2024, which is exciting. Mhmm. So there's gonna be a
00:29:34
lot of conferences, a lot of sessions,
00:29:38
educational sessions, and as well as
00:29:41
women tech conferences as well. We're gonna start to do some more
00:29:45
of those and, community based, reach
00:29:49
outs and and charity work as as well. So it's
00:29:52
gonna be really exciting Beautiful. And merging into the African
00:29:56
market. Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. A lot. This is
00:30:00
quite an interesting question because I wanna ask because I
00:30:03
think a lot of people, you know, recently, you know, they are moving to Ghana,
00:30:07
and they are, you know, you know, seeing, you know, you know, seeing the
00:30:11
upsides and, you know, they are making contributions to the to the country, to the
00:30:15
to the city Accra. What would you say are some of the the challenges
00:30:19
that you've seen or some of the trips in terms of maybe doing business and
00:30:22
doing, you know, impact type, you know,
00:30:26
contributions in in the country? I would
00:30:30
definitely say, the mindset. So,
00:30:34
I I do Yeah. I I I
00:30:38
travel quite a bit. I've always traveled as a as a baby with my
00:30:41
parents' family, up till now. So I've traveled all over the
00:30:45
world, and one thing that I I always have to do
00:30:49
is when I'm leaving Canada and I'm going
00:30:53
somewhere else, whether it may be Africa, South America,
00:30:57
Caribbean, Europe, I have to remember
00:31:01
to change my mindset. As soon as I leave, I
00:31:05
because here we're very fast, very fast paced,
00:31:09
whether it's the way we talk, move, everything is is
00:31:13
quick. And so, we want something as fast
00:31:17
as a New York minute done. Mhmm. And so, when I leave
00:31:20
here, I have to remember that the pace of things are different
00:31:24
everywhere I go. And so I have to kinda take a step back,
00:31:28
especially when I go to Ghana and say, okay. You know, things are might not
00:31:31
be as fast or because there's there's things work in a
00:31:35
different way, and essentially everywhere you go. And
00:31:38
so, and you have to have in mind too that there's different
00:31:42
cultures, so you have to be respectful,
00:31:46
understanding, and and realize
00:31:49
that things work in a different way everywhere you go, specific
00:31:53
specifically in Ghana. And so
00:31:57
that's one thing that could be a challenge at first, but then I remember,
00:32:01
you know, you know, I have to kind of go
00:32:05
with what is happening there and go with the flow, essentially.
00:32:09
And, and I find to
00:32:13
for me, I I the way that I've progressed in life,
00:32:16
specifically when it comes to networking is is
00:32:20
usually saying yes. Whether it's, meeting
00:32:24
somebody last minute or networking or having a meeting
00:32:27
or, showing up to an event.
00:32:31
There might be, you know, last minute, things that somebody will say,
00:32:34
hey. Do you wanna do an interview, or do you wanna come to this conference?
00:32:39
So for example, when I came to Ghana this last trip
00:32:43
here Mhmm. The day that I arrived, somebody asked me to
00:32:47
come to a conference. So I arrived at my hotel,
00:32:51
I dropped my stuff, I had a shower, change, I said, yes, I'm gonna be
00:32:55
there. And if I didn't go, I wouldn't have been able to network.
00:32:59
I was exhausted after 21 hours in
00:33:02
transit. Wow. That was nuts. Wow. That's hilarious.
00:33:05
Yeah. Yeah. It was long, and and I said, you know
00:33:09
what? Let me go because I I never know who I'm gonna meet there,
00:33:13
who I'll network with, might get different
00:33:17
business opportunities. So I'm glad I went, and, I met a lot of
00:33:21
people and and was able to network and to
00:33:25
build relationships. That's another important thing too, is building
00:33:29
not just networking with people, but building a relationship with with
00:33:32
people in their organizations and supporting other
00:33:36
people as well. So all very different. Yeah.
00:33:40
Amazing. Amazing. And, you know, you just never under underestimate
00:33:44
the power of networking, especially in places like Ghana because it is a small
00:33:48
place as much as you may think is a big place. And, you know,
00:33:52
having contacts in different areas for different things is so key here,
00:33:55
honestly. Like, you need a plan a, b, c, d, e, f, g, you know,
00:33:59
the whole alphabet, because things can go, you know,
00:34:03
left when you least, like, you know, when you when you least expect it. So
00:34:07
I think you having the mindset that you have, especially having
00:34:11
talked about the mindsets that some Ghanaians have, I think
00:34:15
it's brilliant, and, you know, I've got no doubt you're gonna succeed in what you're
00:34:18
doing in Ghana and across Africa. Thank you.
00:34:22
Carlita, thank you for coming on the show. Is there any final announcements you wanna
00:34:25
make, and where can everyone connect with with you?
00:34:29
Yes. So I I usually like to say, Instagram
00:34:33
is a great place to to connect with me, at
00:34:36
cash Carlita, and, as well we
00:34:40
have we're just doing maintenance on our website, but we'll be having that up soon.
00:34:44
I'll be making some announcements on Instagram, and,
00:34:48
and that would be yeah. Just send a DM. That would be great to to
00:34:51
connect with people on on different topics and
00:34:55
whatnot and what they're looking for. Mhmm. And, I'd love to
00:34:59
to help and and to network with people as well on there.
00:35:03
Brilliant. Brilliant. Well, we'll have, you know, the Instagram and
00:35:07
maybe if maybe the website if that's ready on time. In the
00:35:10
description below, if you're watching on YouTube, we'll have that in the description below. If
00:35:13
you're listening on the podcast place, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, check the description
00:35:17
below or wherever you get your podcast, and make sure you leave us a 5
00:35:20
star review. Thank you, Okalita, for
00:35:23
enlightening us with web 3 blockchain crypto
00:35:27
currency, especially. What's your favorite cryptocurrency
00:35:31
before you before you go? Because it's not just bit it's not just about bit
00:35:35
Bitcoin. I think some people, I mean, to me, when I first learned
00:35:39
about cryptocurrency, I always thought Bitcoin was
00:35:42
synonymous to cryptocurrency, but that's not the case. You got Bitcoin, then
00:35:46
you have Altcoins, and then maybe some other stuff, and you got maybe, like,
00:35:50
stable coins. So what's what's your what's your favorite coin? Because that's the whole
00:35:53
conversation. Oh, that that's a hard one. I love
00:35:57
XRP, Solana. Another one, one of
00:36:01
my favorite. It's a oldie with a goodie, Omi. Ecomi.
00:36:05
Oh. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's a a very heavily connected to
00:36:09
NFTs. I still have belief in in OMI that it's
00:36:12
gonna hit the moon one day. Absolutely. I mean, that's what they said about XRP
00:36:16
and some other ones. No. No. Actually, not XRP. It was
00:36:20
it I kept trying to remember the I kept trying to remember the coin with
00:36:22
Dogecoin. That's it. Dogecoin to the moon. Oh, that's cool. Elon Musk would come and
00:36:26
type it up. Yeah. Dogecoin to the moon. And then there was one guy that
00:36:29
bought many dollars in Dogecoin, and then he lost it.
00:36:33
Yeah. This is how much investor. I suppose you need to
00:36:36
reach out to people about Carlita to show you how to, you know,
00:36:40
operate or how to navigate cryptocurrency. And, yeah.
00:36:44
Yeah. It's, it's a it's a interesting it's place. But, yeah, XRP,
00:36:47
hopefully, if they win the case, you know Yes. It just shoot
00:36:51
up. I've enjoyed Yes.
00:36:54
Me too. And thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
00:36:58
It's it's an amazing podcast, and, yes,
00:37:02
been an amazing, amazing conversation. No problem at all. If
00:37:06
if we if we're both down and across some time, then we'll do we'll get
00:37:09
definitely get an in person one done because that's what I'm doing right now.
00:37:13
Yeah. I'm shooting season 6. A whole lot of in person conversations.
00:37:16
So hopefully, we'll get it done next time. Yeah? Yes. Absolutely. Brilliant.
00:37:21
Alright, guys. So until next time. Thank you for joining the
00:37:24
a conversation with series on the Sound of Crowd podcast.