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E-finance platform to promote financial literacy among Nigerian youth

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

A global peer-to-peer finance platform, Paxful, has restated its commitment to promoting financial literacy among Nigerian youth as part of its efforts to drive economic growth in the country.

Paxful founder and CEO, Ray Youssef, disclosed this at the 2022 annual Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition, held in Abuja.

Speaking during his presentation at Blockchain Day- “Blockchain for Youth Empowerment”, Youssef noted that the youth are the bedrock of every society, and they facilitate growth and economic development and is vital that they are empowered with financial education to thrive and become the nation’s next great leaders.

ALSO READ: Hossana foundation to train 10,000 of FCT youths with solar energy skills

“Financial education brings empowerment and entrepreneurship. Nigerian youth are leading a financial revolution and Bitcoin has already scaled tenfold compared to other regions.

According to him, this will foster that momentum and open Nigeria up to the global market, grow local businesses, expand opportunities for international freelancers and lessen Nigeria’s reliance on international governments who threaten to devalue local commerce.

SOURCE: Punch new

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Ethermine, world’s biggest Ether mining firm to shut down after the ‘Merge’

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

Ethermine, the largest Ethereum mining services provider by computing power, will shut down its servers for miners after the blockchain completes its historic technical upgrade.

The news comes on the eve of Ethereum’s highly-anticipated software revamp, dubbed the ‘Merge,’ which will shift the most used blockchain from a proof of work consensus mechanism to proof of stake.

This means that in less than 24 hours, it will no longer be possible to mine Ether on the Etherum network, as the powerful graphic cards used to validate transaction data will be replaced with investors that stake Ether. Going forward, these validators will effectively secure the Ethereum blockchain and validate data on the network.

“As a consequence of this transition, the Ethermine Ethereum mining pool will switch to withdraw-only mode once the Proof-of-Work mining phase has ended,” Ethermine tweeted on Wednesday.

A countdown timer will appear on the miner dashboard and users will be able to mine Ether until it hits zero. At that point, “all Ethermine stratum servers will be shut down, and you will no longer be able to connect your miner to the Ethermine Ethereum pool,” said the company.

A few days after the Merge, Ethermine will trigger an automatic payout to its miners for any unpaid balances. The company also launched an Ethereum staking pool in August, where Ether holders will be able to deposit their coins and earn yields.

After the Merge takes place, as many as one million people with over $10 billion worth of mining equipment will have to unplug the graphic processing units (GPUs) they have used so far to mine Ether.

Ether mining has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry over the last several years. The activity involves miners competing against each other to be the first to solve mathematic puzzles and earn a reward in the token.

Mining pools such as Ethermine aggregate computing power from a group of miners to increase the probability of winning Ether before distributing the rewards among miners.

The pools usually charge a fee for providing their services.

Source: Bloomberg

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AfricaAFRICA NEWSBusinessFinance & ServicesNewsNigeriaWestern Africa

US blockchain financing startup PowerDFI acquires Naijacrypto

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

PowerDFI, a recently founded Wyoming-based Blockchain financial startup, has acquired Naijacrypto, a Nigerian-owned cryptocurrency exchange focused initially on the African markets.

Naijacrypto, which recently expanded its offering to include multiple African countries and the United Kingdom, is one of the few exchanges with some presence in the Caribbean and has indicated an interest in expanding to other Latin American Countries.

Despite Naijacrypto’s growing Geographical scope, it seems PowerDFI’s main interest in Naijacrypto is its vast growing technical infrastructure which has been streamlined to meet not just retail Needs but also B2B use cases.

Commenting on the acquisition, Tim Webb, the CEO of PowerDFI, said: “Adding the work done by Naijacrypto to what we are building in PowerDFI fills out our technology suite to handle trillions in assets over the next decade.”

“We are set to lead the transition of the $57 trillion shadow banking market to the blockchain to improve transparency and security,” he added.

In an email to their users, Naijacrypto CEO, Chiagozie Iwu explained that the exchange was transitioning to a business model set to disrupt the financial markets while still maintaining aspects that have made their users stick to them for years.

According to him, even though many structured products would be made available on the exchange, stablecoin-based remittance instruments would keep serving their initial purposes and even be made better by the support PowerDFI can harness.

He added that Naijacrypto was set to leverage its already massive B2B networks in offering hedge instruments to businesses and individuals exposed to exchange rate risk.

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AfricaBinanceCryptocurrencyEducationNigeriaWestern Africa

Binance takes blockchain education to northern Nigeria

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, has collaborated with Edubox Global, a leading platform facilitating opportunities for the education of Africans, to launch a crypto education tour across 8 states in Northern Nigeria.

According to a report published by EFInA, 68.6% of financially excluded Nigerians are in Northern Nigeria. As a result, Binance is taking its education efforts to the region to ensure indigenes have a good understanding of the technology and can leverage crypto for greater financial accessibility. Subsequently, this will create new opportunities for Northern Nigerians – with many acquiring skills, gaining employment, and obtaining access to financial systems that were previously unavailable to them. Notably, by helping them understand the blockchain ecosystem, they can position themselves to benefit from this wealth transfer era.

On July 14, 2022, the Binance Northern Experience kicked off with a goal to empower Northern Nigerians by exposing them to practical ways to gain access to financial freedom in a post-pandemic world. The tour is to be hosted in 14 locations across 8 states in Northern Nigeria. It has been split into 3 seasons, with each season featuring offline community meetups and masterclasses in the selected states.

ALSO READ: EU partners FG to fast-track gas infrastructure for European markets

Olubunmi Fabanwo, Program Manager at Binance Africa facilitating blockchain education in Kaduna

The first season of the tour started with offline educational events in Jos, Kaduna and Kano, introducing people to the world of cryptocurrency, as well as the Binance Ecosystem. These events took place on 14th, 18th and 19th July, respectively. The season recorded over 1000 attendees with keen interests in blockchain technology. Attendees also participated in engaging games like an NFT quiz, with the top 5 winners receiving NFTs.

Ahmed Ado, one of the attendees said: “Nobody ever wants to come to the North because of all they hear about the region, but you people (Binance) have been bold enough to come all the way. There is potential here for crypto and blockchain generally. We look forward to more of these initiatives.”

Emmanuel Ebanehita, Marketing Lead at Binance Africa said: “Since 2020, we have been dedicated to pushing blockchain and crypto education across Africa, training over 600,000 crypto enthusiasts. Our goal is to ensure that everyone understands the impact of blockchain technology and what it means for financial accessibility. Our initiatives in Northern Nigeria have been thrilling so far, with much more enthusiasts than we even expected. It’s been awesome guiding crypto beginners on the basics of blockchain and communicating the different opportunities available within the industry.”

Following the success of the first season, Season 2 of the Binance Northern Experience is set for August 2022 in Niger, Bauchi and Gombe states. This education tour could not have come at a better time given the current economic downturn and rising inflation.

By taking its education efforts to Northern Nigeria, Binance continues its mission to increase crypto literacy, drive blockchain adoption and enable greater financial accessibility for Africans. Since the kick off in January 2020, the Binance Masterclass has provided free crypto education to over 600,000 Africans.

Source: Pulse ng

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AfricaBusinessCryptocurrencyTechnologyWestern Africa

Zhao visits West Africa, donates funds for community education workshops

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

The Founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure provider, Changpeng Zhao, recently visited Ivory Coast and Senegal as part of his tour to connect with Binancians across the world and collaborate with policymakers. 

CZ’s stay in the region involved meetings with Alassane Dramane Ouattara, President of Ivory Coast and Macky Sall, President of Senegal, amongst others.

Changpeng, known more commonly by his initials “CZ”, expressed the company’s commitment to collaborating with policymakers in Africa as well as highlighting blockchain’s importance to the financial economy. “Africa is primed for crypto adoption as blockchain provides financial accessibility not currently available to lots of Africans”, CZ said.

ALSO READ: Flutterwave debunks money laundering allegations in Kenya.

During his visit, CZ announced Binance’s partnership with Jokkolabs, one of Africa’s first social impact hubs. Through this partnership, Binance will launch a blockchain awareness and education programme throughout communities in Francophone Africa. 

“Together, we will reinforce the region as a hub of blockchain innovation and entrepreneurship”, he said. The partnership will involve a monetary donation for community education workshops with an aim to increase blockchain literacy and skills. Binance aims to build the fintech community across the Francophone Africa region, ensuring enthusiasts are empowered to build blockchain solutions and solve real-world problems,” Zhao further said.

CZ’s visit comes a week after the announcement of Binance’s partnership with Senegalese Khaby Lame, the most-followed creator on TikTok. It also comes a few months after Binance’s sponsorship of AFCON, the largest international football championship in Africa, showing Binance’s commitment to driving blockchain adoption within the region.

Source: This Day

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Nigerian exchange to adopt blockchain for settling transactions

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

The Nigerian bourse, Nigeria Exchange Limited, will in 2023 begin the use of blockchain technology for settling trade across its platform in a bid draw young investors, CEO Temi Popoola said, according to a Bloomberg report.

“For a lot of young and upcoming Nigerians, that is the kind of technology they adopt and we want to see how we can deploy it to grow our market,” said the NGX head.

Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrency. The innovation will be coming at a time of increasing effort by policymakers and businesses in Africa to leverage the technology to facilitate trade. Capital market watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission has also unveiled a regulatory framework for digital asset transactions.

Cryptocurrency markets are seeing a plummet after Terra blockchain crashed last month, with Bitcoin shrinking by more than a half since touching an all-time peak about eight months ago.

Nigerian youths account for the biggest cryptocurrency transaction volumes in the world after the US, says Paxful, which offers a platform for trading in Bitcoin but are not inclined to equity trading.

READ ALSO: CBN to introduce USSD code to improve eNaira

The new decision is likely to be well received by young investors who have lately explored investing in cryptocurrency and foreign markets to side-step Nigeria’s inflationary pressures. Nigeria’s inflation accelerated from 12.3 per cent to 16.8 per cent between the April of 2019 and April 2022.

Mr Popoola said “Blockchain technology can facilitate different parts of the capital market, whether around creation of products or facilitation of the Exchange to trade financial assets.”
His organisation hopes to forge synergy with a technology company and get a go-ahead from regulators ahead of next year’s launch.

The Central Bank of Nigeria placed a bar on facilitating cryptocurrency deals by commercial banks saying it could put the financial system in danger.

He said bringing digitization to trade will pave the way for bringing young investors interested in diversified products into the fold while helping them gain seamless access to the market.

Premium Times

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