The CEO of the Kenyan holding company Equity Group Holdings, James Mwangi, believes that payments using cryptocurrencies can improve the financial system of African countries.
Equity Group Holdings is considered Kenya’s largest financial company, with over $10 billion in assets under management and a customer base of about 9 million users.
Speaking at Bloomberg Invest: Focus on Africa, Head of Equity Group Holdings James Mwangi shared thoughts on the prospects for the development of cryptocurrencies in Africa. In his opinion, crypto assets can complement the mobile payment system in Kenya, and the use of the latest technologies will allow the country to overtake many developed countries that are slow to introduce cryptocurrencies.
Mwangi explained that in Kenya, mobile payments outnumber cash transactions. This is due to the emergence of the M-Pesa payment service for online banking operations based on the Safaricom mobile operator.
The CEO of Equity Group Holdings believes that regulators should be equally open to the use of digital assets, as well as be ready to cooperate with interested parties, so that people can just as easily pay with bitcoins. Moreover, a lot depends on banks, since they are able to convince regulators to allow the use of crypto assets for settlements and payments.
“We hope that the use of the latest technologies, big data, artificial intelligence and digital assets will allow African countries to make significant progress in the financial sector,” Mwangi said.
At the end of April, the Central African Republic became the first country in Africa to recognize bitcoin as legal tender. However, the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) called this decision irresponsible, since the legalization of bitcoin in the Central African Republic would destroy the country’s economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was also dissatisfied with the actions of the Central African Republic, fearing that they would lead to the development of a “shadow economy”.
Source: Bits
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