Chainalysis research paper on ‘The 2021 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report,’ released in October 2021 shows that Nigeria is ranked 6th in the global crypto adoption index with an index score of 0.26. Meanwhile, it is important to point out that Nigeria was once the leading nation in Africa in terms of cryptocurrency adoption.
In spite of the increasing interest of Nigerians in the crypto space, the Central Bank of Nigeria has continued to frown at companies that associate with cryptocurrency transactions. Recently, a publication by Nairametrics reveals how the apex bank recently fined banks for failing to comply with regulations prohibiting customers from transacting in cryptocurrencies.
In lieu of this, Payercoin, a fintech startup said it is filling the void by helping businesses in Africa to accept crypto payment on its platform from anywhere in the world without any limitation whilst also allowing the companies to get their money back in their local currency; dealing in stable cryptocurrency that are pegged to the dollar.
Speaking during Nairametrics Business Half Hour (BHH), Payercoin CEO, Victor Adeleye said that the startup is helping businesses in Africa by facilitating the acceptance of payment from anywhere in the world, hence helping them secure a space in the global market.
Explaining how the company operates especially navigating the murky water with CBN policy in Nigeria, he said, “Because of the issue with the Nigerian government around the policy of not accepted crypto, What we do is that, when you accept payment in crypto, we do your settlement also in crypto and there is a peer to peer platform where you can easily convert your money back to your currency.
“This means that we work with already licensed platforms that are trusted to help convert your money back to naira. So once you accept your currency, you can easily convert it back to your local currency. But for other countries, we were able to automate that process and it is not the same in Nigeria because in Nigeria, there is no way you can automate payout in naira due to strict policies.
Commenting on the business terrain for startups dealing in crypto, he pointed to education as a major tool that should be devised to subdue the fear around cryptocurrency. He said, “It has been a bit challenging considering the fact that a couple of Nigerian laws do not support what we do and this actually put a bit of fear in citizens and they feel like they are not yet used to giving customers the chance to play with crypto. People still have little fear in them because of the stuff coming out of the space and there is less education.
“Our population is too big that we don’t yet have a lot of people equipped with that knowledge of crypto and how it works. I think we still need to do more by educating the people on how it works and how it can help solve problems.”
On how the company is able to keep transactions in check, he explained that the startup has a very strong KYC that enables it to verify users’ accounts after creating the account even before they withdraw money to avoid fraud.
“After registering we tell us whether you are a business or individual. As a business, you upload your documents, CAC certifications, before we verify your account. Once this is done, you use either our API that allows third-party companies to use our API to accept payment on our platform,” Adeleye said.
