Crypto and Startup innovations to watch in Africa (Fintech Fridays Special Edition with Binance Africa Ep.4)

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone, welcome to the Fintech Fridays series on The Sound of Accra Podcast, where we unpack economic topics and affairs across the African continent.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Adrian Daniels.

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_00]: This special series on the Fintech Fridays is the fourth of a 12-part series where we explore blockchain technology and crypto currency in a lot more detail.

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Special thanks to our sponsors Binance Africa.

[00:00:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Binance is the world's leading blockchain ecosystem and crypto currency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchanged by volume.

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Trotted by millions worldwide, the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings, including trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralization

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and infrastructure solutions and more. For more information, please visit www.binance.com or check the links in the description below.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_00]: For more information, disclaimers, risk warnings and links, please also check the podcast description section below.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: In today's episode we will explore why there is a boom taking place with Africa's crypto currency and blockchain sector

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and some of the startups and innovations that have been birthed as a result of the huge spiking growth we are seeing take place on the continent.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Startups, as we knew it in Africa, have always been dominated by the web 2 scene.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Now when you think of the most successful startups that have gone on to become massive players, I mean you think about companies like Jumiya, you think Paystack, you think Flutterwave, you think Move, you think Andela and there's a few others as well.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: These are all now widely successful but characterized by web 2 technology companies such as online banking and online software.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: In today's episode we will explore some startups from Africa that have been early adopters of web 3 technologies such as the blockchain, a decentralized ledger that records transactions digitally.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay let's go straight into it. So the first one we're going to take a look at is Ajara.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Ajara comes out of Cameroon. It's designed for Francophone Africa that is the French speaking power of Africa

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: and it's designed to enable Africans to access affordable investment offers including shares in crypto.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Now they raised over 10 million dollars in series A funding in 2020 which is pretty impressive

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: and this startup focuses on countries such as Ivory Coast, Senegal and many more where they speak the French language

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: which is a good market to capture if you can get into it especially in West Africa.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Now Ajara aims to make investment and savings products using blockchain technology as accessible as possible

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_00]: so this product range extends as far to cryptocurrency trading, interest bearing accounts

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: and plans to introduce stock trading from the US as well. I recommend you go out and check out the website

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: really clean, the website is also available in French. You can head over to www.ajara.io

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: we'll put the links in the description below for you guys to have a look at it.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Now the next startup I want us to explore is Afropolitan. Now Afropolitan has launched a

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: successful NFT collection and they're even expanding into payments and they're aiming to

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: create an ecosystem that pulls African talent culture and capital just imagine the emergence

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: of all these things coming together. These are all very powerful parts of Africa now

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: they are building a digital nation so what you can do is you can head over to the website

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and they have a newsletter, they have a community, they have very good social media

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: so they're really building this digital nation out of Africa and what you can do is we need

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: to subscribe to the newsletter and then join the community you can keep up the

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: latest blockchain innovations that they're getting up to. So I recommend you guys go

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and check out the website we'll leave a link in the description below that's Afropolitan.io

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_00]: All right let's talk about some other innovations happening on the continent.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about the onboard wallet of course the onboard wallet is from Binance so this is

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: created by former Binance Labs director Yeli Badimosi the onboard wallet combines standard

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: crypto wallet features with integrated fiat tools that allow for conversion from cryptocurrency

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: to fiat to transfer to recipients bank account. Now this solves the problem

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: of simplifying the process of moving between fiat and cryptocurrencies which will make

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: cryptocurrency adoption a lot more attractive than they say. Okay and finally last but not least

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_00]: let's take a look at the Ethereum Foundation's crop insurance also known as Ethereum sick.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Crypto lovers do you get it? Ethereum sick? The Ethereum Foundation has implemented a

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: blockchain based crop insurance program covering 17,000 Kenyan farmers. They provide

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: parametric insurance for farmers. Ethereum sick's insurance policies are triggered automatically

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: in the event of extreme weather events such as droughts or floods and payouts are made to the

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: policy holder. So I recommend all of the crypto innovations and startups that we've discussed

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: today go and check out the website everything will be in the podcast description below and

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: sign up to the newsletters all their communities if they have them. I think these are some of

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: the plays that we really need to watch to keep an eye out for in regards to moving the needle forward

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: for Africa. All right thank you all for listening to today's episode once again for more information

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: on violence and the disclaimers risk warnings and links please check the podcast description

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: section below you'll also find references from today's episode I'll catch you in the next one see you