The guests on Episode 31 of Hashing It Out believe traditional finance has hurt innovation in the African fintech space and that cryptocurrency can breathe some life into it.
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Ahead of the Africa Money and DeFi Summit, Hashing It Out host Elisha Owusu Akyaw (GhCryptoGuy) spoke with Andrew Fassnidge, founder of Africa Tech Summit, and Enoch Antwi, CEO of Dnar — a finance application that has decided to rebuild and reenter the Ghanaian market this quarter. The conversation covered the intersection between cryptocurrency developments on the African continent and the financial technology sector. Fassnidge shared his experience from the perspective of an investor and conference organizer who has seen the genesis of multiple unicorns on the content, and Antwi offered his thoughts from the perspective of a founder in both sectors.
Fassnidge opened the podcast with an explanation of the state of fintech in Africa, explaining that despite the growth of financial technology applications on the continent, the rise of failed startups that raised huge capital has cast a dark shadow over the ecosystem. The lack of sustainability of innovations in the space has harmed investor confidence and made the masses wary of using local financial applications. Additionally, the state of local currencies has created an appetite for storing wealth in foreign currencies. This trend is making decentralized finance and stablecoins popular in African markets.
Antwi also explained that the ecosystem has reached a tipping point where the innovation that follows will be exponential. He also believes favorable regulations will be developed in the next few years. He said:
“I am hearing some good things coming out of different markets across Africa which weren’t happening three or four years ago in terms of regulation and policy towards digital assets. And normally, it was just, ‘Let’s ban it, let’s stop it.’ And now they realize, ‘Actually, well, we can’t stop it because people are using it anyway.’”
The episode also discusses issues concerning fundraising by African startups and the use cases of decentralized finance on the African continent.
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