Topic: Nigerian Leads the Crypto (Bitcoin)World in Africa (Read 507 times)

Starting from the time countries don't fully know of cryptocurrency and especially bitcoin, Nigerian has been the first that adoption the system of cryptocurrency, this analysis started from the initial something, and if not the government of Nigerian that interrupted the massive adoption of cryptocurrency in Nigeria the population size would have been more larger than this, in Africa Nigerian is number to embrace cryptocurrency, that doesn't mean that they most populated country in Africa but what i found out is that they know the relevant of bitcoin from the initial.

You're right, this has been said repeatedly on several publication articles in the recent months and I've also heard about Nigeria been the third in place on the global world ranking for bitcoin subscribers on the internet, two things can be considered here, first it has the highest population in Africa and is a developing country, secondly the country have a large number of unemployed youths seeking for alternative with financial and economical means of rescue through bitcoin because I also learnt that the CBDC introduced in Nigeria had experience low interest from citizens to participate in.

The data you include as being relative to 2021 seems to be originated from a survey conducted by Statista, and more specifically derived from 2020 data: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1202468/global-cryptocurrency-ownership/
(I’ve seen the figures in articles such as this one, which point to Statista as their source).

I’m not a particular fan of Statista in general terms. The above data is derived from their Global Consumer Survey, which is performed, as per their own description (page 24) through online surveys. Nigeria has, again as per Statista’s data a 34,3% mobile internet penetration. The BTC user questions could, therefore, perhaps be misrepresenting the general population, and the overall figure vs general population be quite lower.

I'm not worried about those statistics, and certainly the increase that's happened in Nigeria so far is proof that people are starting to make cryptocurrencies for various purposes. Business, trading, investing, storage of value, means of payment are some of the use cases and I think people are getting very familiar with crypto.

As far as I know, Nigeria is one of the countries that currently has a contribution to crypto regardless of the destination. Great, it will get better and stronger in the future.

Nigeria is indeed a country with bitcoin users, even in 2021 Nigeria will be the country with the most bitcoin users.

- Nigerian 32%
- Vietnamese 21%
- Philippines 20%
- Turkey 16%
- Peru 16%
- Switzerland 11%
- China 7%
- United States (USA) 6%
- Germany 5%
- Japan 4%.

The devaluation of Nigerian naira is a secondary reason why people in Nigeria are embracing cryptocurrency. The fall of currencies is not applicable to only Nigeria, it is global. Many currencies of the world has collapsed and I also think that it is not the major reason for  crypto adoption. It is only people that have gotten enough money will begin to save for the future  majority of people in Nigeria do not have enough for their daily feeding, shelter and clothing let alone to save.

The main drive of the acceptance of cryptocurrency in Nigeria is because of unemployment. The youths are desperate to see what will give them money, that is why they embrace cryptocurrency more than their counterparts. If you check the index of Ponzi schemes you will understand that Nigerians are also the most defrauded  This is to show that they don't have permanent means of earning living which is largely caused by bad governance.

Nigerians are positive about cryptocurrency trading. And since it was introduced to Nigerians many of them who were into sports betting solely for money switched into cryptocurrency. However, many Nigerians have trading bots that is viral and used by many traders around the nations. The population of Nigeria is too high but bitcoin is a house hold name both old and young people know about Bitcoin. So the number there can be said to be incorrect compared to the total population in Nigeria and the number of youths In Nigeria who learn, trade and buy Bitcoin.

I think that the only area of cryptocurrency (bitcoin) where Nigerians do not now dominate is mining, and this is because the cost of production is not viable in Nigeria; otherwise, I believe that the world would already be turning its attention away from China and toward Nigeria.

It is only in Nigeria you find out that they have literally invested in any projects that are well known and popular, they are the ones dominating P2P with good records known by centralized and decentralized exchanges, and they make good use of any opportunity they see in this crypto industry and do you know why? It is simply a result of failed government, the government has failed the citizens and now the citizens have taken their future into their hands by investing in things that can safeguard their future and this is just the beginning if you ask me.

There is only one Bitcoin ATM in Nigeria, which was launched in 2020 by a company known by the name "Blockstale". The ATM is at Dazey Lounge and Bar, Ajah Lagos. I don't know if the ATM is still functional because the last time I read about it was in 2020 and since then, there has been no recent update until 2021 when the Blockstale CEO had an interview with Ventures Africa due to the ban placed on the use of cryptocurrency in the country by the apex bank.

This analysis could have been done years ago, because the level of acceptance of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency among Nigerians is rapidly increasing. Due to the high rate of unemployment in the country, Nigerians discovered Bitcoin as a way out because they are certain of making a profit after some time of trading, and many of us are in the forum earning money through signature campaigns, which has actually reduced the rate at which youths rely on the government for job opportunities because they can provide for themselves through Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.

Yeah there are bitcoin ATM in Nigeria, the number is what I am not certain about. I have heard of one which was actually the first one here in Nigeria around the 2020 or so. It was situated at a lounge in lagos (Dazey lounge). Although south Africa as a country has more in Africa.

Zimbabwe is actually part of the top African countries that trades in bitcoin according to some news outlets/blogs. South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ghana according to this link.
I didn't see Central African Republic in it also, last I read it was the only African country that uses bitcoin as their central Currency.

I don't know how this information was collected because this looks like rankings are based on population or how tech savvy it's citizens are... But nevertheless, for me if this was based on crypto news originating from these countries, South Africa and Nigeria would be topping my list.

Btw does Nigeria have bitcoin ATMs like South Africa 

And one last thing, how come I don't see Zimbabwe on that list, because we all know these guys didn't/don't have a currency to use and they resorted to using the US dollar, Rands and some bitcoin, and not forgetting Zimbabwe was making crypto headlines way before crypto got to some of these countries ... So how is it that these guys aren't on the list???

I'm not surprised to see an information like this though, as I have known --atleast for a while -- that' in Nigeria, peeps take crypto very personal 😌 (allow me to use that). Mostly youths are into HODLing coins; some even do these, bypass those protocols for risk management, just to earn the day's meal. I wasn't even surprised when an aged man was captured, trading in forex, Gold --, with its volatility, an old Nigerian brain could reckon? that was mind-blowing.

The number isn't bad as though, crypto needs alot more initiators..... The vaccum could accumulate any number. It's only enhancing the crypto world's mobility, which is the same thing everyone cares about.

Sandra 💇

Although the information in the graph appears to be logical to some extent, the source is not completely reliable and we do not know the way in which these statistics were collected. What caught my attention in this list of countries are two points: First, Nigeria is the only country that uses the CFA franc, which was founded by France during the period of its colonization of many African countries, and today it is still draining the wealth of those countries with this unfortunate financial system, which made the peoples wishing to emancipate find refuge in the use of Bitcoin. At the same time, he was surprised that no other countries were victims of the CFA franc. Secondly, I was amazed at the absence of both Egypt and Algeria from the list due to my keeping pace with the development in these two countries, and I thought that the percentage of their contribution must be significant, at least according to the number of their population, which is the largest in the continent.

I can't really say the figure is too small because if compared my territory to other places, it might clear that the number might be correct. There are plenty of youths knows about Bitcoin but not all that have the awareness or knows Bitcoin is using it. It is only few. But I am very much pleased to hear that Nigeria is toping the African continent on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
If really Nigeria is leading the crypto ecosystem in Africa there is possibility that if the next president is youth friendly, he might adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender in the country and at that things will be very much ok for the youths.

Nigerians into crypto are way more than a 13million. Nevertheless is quite a figure to tell how far crypto has gone in Nigeria's society. One thing about Nigeria is that they don't venture into what will not yield success. Crypto is what has come to their rescue, to sustain them from the high rise of the unemployment rate. They are ready to risk it despite the government ban.

The 13million Nigerians are mostly youths. The youths are longing for a great change for them to be financially free, independent and escape poverty hovering around the country.

Am happy that Nigerians have already adopted cryptocurrency as another means of surviving than being solely dependent on failed government that refuses to provide employment and a liable environment to nurture talent and ambition.

I still believed that the ENaria could have been used by those who are not into Bitcoin, as payment method. But I assume the people of Nigeria do not trust their central Bank after taking wrong decisions in the past?

Also, Do you live in Nigeria? Because I would like to check a reliable source on the statistics of the adoption of the Enaira so I can compare it with the adoption of decentralized cryptocurrencies. 

I wonder if you could help me out with it?

No question about Nigeria being the top African country in terms of cryptocurrency adoption. Despite the uncertainty of cryptocurrency in adopting to banks where they are currently banned, Nigerians are finding ways to continue trading in terms of P2P.

The Nigerian government just needs to regulate cryptocurrency usage in banks, institutions, etc.

It is not something new about the high rate of cryptocurrency users in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country that loves to embrace new technology, especially its youths. Crypto is a youth thing because they love the digital system, I talked to my cousin of 18yrs and he told me that formerly if you are rich as a teen,people will know because of your lifestyle, presently it is impossible for you to know a rich teenager because he has invested or saved all his money into crypto and anytime he needs to spend he just converts his coins into fiat money immediately and so many more. Also corruption from policemen and other law enforcement agaencies have also helped the youth to invest in crypto and naira devaluation.

This law enforcement agencies embarrass and intimidate teenagers by arresting them illegally, asking the teens to bail themselves on their way to the police station. If the police sees that you don't have fiat currency in you possession, they might let you go freely or you pay alittle amount. If you have so much on you then you will be extorted by the police. Nigeria government doesn't want cryptocurrency in the country but because of its decentralized system they have no power to stop its use in the country. Nigerians in other neighbouring countries are the ones even teaching the citizens about cryptocurrency.

Since nearly all Nigerian youths are now aware of bitcoin and use it as a source of income, the statistics for Nigeria may possibly be far higher than that figure. Due to the fact that it is so widely used in the nation, many people have decided to utilize it as a business alternative, a way to save money, and for both domestic and international transactions. I still expect the number to increase shortly, as more users are eager to use it more every day.


The so-called E-naira is already on its way to death, or should I just say it is dead. It was brought there as an alternative to fiat money. It was introduced to compete with other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin because everyone is now switching to digital currency and its mass acceptance is becoming a viral phenomenon. This is nothing more than a trap set by the government to control the use of digital money through its centralized system. Little did the young people fell for it and stopped using the E-naira.

The data might be correct or wrong based on certain facts that have been verified in recent times. There have been claims by some research organizations like Forbes that most Centralized exchange companies inflate their transaction figures or customers just to outsmart or beat competitors. These claims have not been verified but they might be true because of the fierce competition between these centralized exchanges and their desperation to get a large customer base.

The report by OP might also be correct because it would take only citizens of Nigeria to understand the torture one has to experience at the hands of commercial banks. Sometimes you have to stay in a long queue to deposit or withdraw money. Online banking facilities offer expensive low quality services. You might have to waste so much time in the bank to carry out or rectify a single transaction. There are withdrawal limits and high fees are imposed if you want to exceed the limit. Nigerian banks cannot be relied on in cases of emergencies. The Nigerian currency has kept on losing its value thereby reducing the purchasing power of many. Nigerians are massively running to mainly bitcoin because it is a good alternative.   

Curious, last time I checked the government of India was actively persecuting and enforcing a legal ban on cryptocurrency of all sorts within the territory, I recall they even gave a deadline for people to liquidate their cryptocurrencies into FIAT, in order to avoid getting in trouble and yet the adoption (according to this source) is still pretty high, did I miss something these last months on this matter?

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Also, I have found Nigeria to be a quite peculiar country: High Bitcoin adoption, the Nigerian movie industry, the social and economical struggle of that country, etc.
I doubt ENaira will end the adoption trend there, because in the end eNaira is only a new name to the same system that have defaulted the people of such African Nation, they won't get fooled so easily, I think.

We all know that their are lot's of people using bitcoin in Nigeria, Bitcoin have really saved youth in Nigeria, since the rate of unemployment in increasing daily in Nigeria, so most youth's now involves them selfs in Cryptocurrency just to make money. Central Bank of Nigeria has ban the use of cryptocurrency in Nigeria but youths don't still care, I think 13 million users is kind of much, nobody can get the actual figure but every one is just predicting. You claim that that the figure is wrong, I don't know if you can provide yours and how you did your survey.
We all know their are lot's of people that are involved in bitcoin in the city, but don't think is everyone that talks about bitcoin are really into bitcoin. Also have visited some rural areas and if I tell you that lot's of people haven't heard of bitcoin before, the places I visited just few people have heard about bitcon before and they don't even know what it's all about.

The statistics provided in OP is centered on Africa and having one that covers the continents with Nigeria still coming off in a significant position is a thing of pride for all Nigerians. You guys are doing well and I wonder why shouldn't they!
Nigeria is a great nation with so much opportunities but these opportunities have been chartered away by those in his places through corrupt practices. Making living very difficult for an average Nigerian. This makes Nigerians be on the constant Prawle for a means of escape and this is what they find in cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency is freedom, freedom from government control and those who seek to escape the government would always utilise what they have in bitcoin. Its a need for an average Nigeria and they would continue to make there mark in the cryptocurrency industry.

data is data, you don't have to think hard about it, I also live in a country far from Nigeria so I'm not sure if the data is correct but what I do know is that the Nigerian people are very enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies (based on that data).
Many people in developing countries (including mine) wish to change their fate via cryptocurrencies, so it's no wonder why countries like India are leading the way, cryptocurrencies are changing the lives of many people in developing countries.

Smiles The statistics of people who invested in cryptocurrencies this year have increased significantly in Nigeria, and more are still willing to do more with awesomeness ongoing to give cryptocurrency a good shape in Nigeria since bi. Nigeria is really taking a new shape as the leading African nation in cryptocurrency, which is encouraging the government, which has failed its youths, and crypto have elevated many in Nigeria.

I don’t have FB, so I can’t see the real source behind the source linked in the OP. Nevertheless, the data coincides in the top 5 cases with the numbers provided in this article (June 2022). This latter article indicates that the data comes from Triple A, and bears a link to the data source that is no longer valid (ends up here - the WayBackMachine does not help in this case). Another article from 2021 coincides in the value of some of the countries listed (those being African).

My feeling is that the info does indeed come from Triple A, but is showing data that is now updated on their website, in relation to the data in the graph/link from the OP. Their current data takes Nigerian crypto holders, for example, to the 22,3M mark (13M on the graph shown in the OP).

If we look at their methodology (at the bottom of the page, and pretty long):
I’d need to understand better the rationale behind the methodology, but I’ve got a strong feeling that the extrapolation method is leading to results that are probably way off...

We have already proven countless times with examples that these are simply incorrect data, and @stompix has broken these claims to pieces several times. I think that these numbers are part of some kind of FOMO that is generated by local CEXs, or maybe even by global CEXs who want to attract as many clients as possible from countries such as India or Nigeria.

Regardless of the real numbers, it seems to me that the percentage of those who actually invest in Bitcoin is even smaller compared to those who seek profit by investing in altcoins. I would like to see the percentage of crypto scams in those countries compared to the EU or the US, and somehow it seems to me that the Nigerian princes are living very well since Bitcoin appeared.

I do not know of any developing countries, but in Nigeria, bitcoin and other crypto are having more adoption because of devaluation of Nigeria fiat currency, Naira and also because of their investment profitability. The fact is that those that are not having bank accounts here in Nigeria are not literate and they are people that can not make use of bitcoin and other crypto, many of them do not even have the kind of devices like computer and browsing phones or tab they can use for it.

I do not know much about the analysis. There can also be some inaccuracies in analyses. But just that Chainanalysis explained the methods used to arrive at the conclusion. You may read the methods used and do not agree with the chain analysis organization. In my opinion, I would have preferred the methods used to be in nominal value, but PPP was used, but which is accurate to some experts. The result would have been different and push the developed countries more on the top if nominal was used. Or at least, both nominal and PPP values analyses would have been better for individual to choose.

These numbers seem grossly exaggerated to me as I seriously doubt that almost 1/3 of Indians or 1/4 Nigerians own cryptocurrencies. I have no doubt that crypto is popular in developing countries as it helps unbanked people, but I think that all those sites are pulling the numbers out of their ass, or they do a survey on a small amount of people that results in the skewed picture like in that link/image you shared. 


Tbh, this "analysis" doesn't look any more convincing and should be taken with a pinch of salt, to say the least.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not banned in Nigeria. What only happened was that the Central Bank of Nigeria banned bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Nigeria are led by three arms of government which are the arms that can be possible for bitcoin and other crypto to be banned and reduce adoption in the country. Crypto can be banned especially if the legislative arm of government make the proposal, approved by them and later signed by the president, but all these arms of government are mute about bitcoin. The CBN ban discouraged crypto organizations to be developed or become established in Nigeria but has nothing to do with individuals buying and selling bitcoin. The reason Nigerians are now using p2p.

This is not about crypto adoption in the world, but about crypto adoption in Africa. To know more about the lastest Chainanalysis crypto adoption index 2022, you would find this helpful: Crypto adoption index 2022 - Chainanalysis

From the stats, Nigeria has a lot of engagement in cryptocurrencies more than any country in the world. It’s nice to be recognized globally for a good thing. It’s ironic that the two countries with the largest ownership of crypto India and Nigeria are/were also the leading as some of the countries with highest poverty rate. I’m hoping the Nigeria government will one day realize the benefits in embracing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in their electoral process.

At some point, the margin was a slim one between Nigeria and Kenya. It's good to know that the gap has widened now. It's even this low because of anti-government perspective of cryptocurrency in the country. The ban and restriction of crypto use in Nigeria has continued to scare the lilly hearted among us from engaging in it, especially those who don't go through P2P. If it weren't so, the number of users would've been more than what is reported. CZ Binance was fast to discover the Nigeria market and tailored some of his services to suit his Nigerian users. No doubt, that too also helped grow the Binance brand.

Indeed, Nigerians are so into crypto and BTC but how accurate is this image of yours OP? No one knows, Nigeria consist of smart people and since the country is striving right now crypto seems like the smartest side hustle to look into, but honestly, I expect India and Venezuela to be so closer by.

based on data from Finder, Nigeria is the second largest global cryptocurrency ownership in the world after India, it's really surprising to see how enthusiastic youth in nigeria are about cryptocurrencies.
The Nigerian government has indeed issued a Nigerian digital currency (eNaira) that aims to suppress the growth of Nigerian youth who are interested in cryptocurrencies but it seems to be in vain.

This huge number of Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria is a pointer to one fact and that is, the level of technological adoption and awareness among the youths in Nigeria if you check very well youths make up for  89% - 90% of the number of cryptocurrency adoption in Nigeria. Even though the Central bank has tried to make a drawback among the bank interfering in cryptocurrency transaction but that have not limited Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria by any means. Nigeria represents a large number in cryptocurrency usage in Africa and as time goes on a lot of development will allow more free flow of Bitcoin transactions and adoption will open up and which will eventually trigger Bitcoin adoption by the central bank in the future giving the bank access to transact cryptocurrency related payments.

Although I think the list line up is very much accurate but I still think the numbers of people that owns Crypto-currency in those countries was just from a rough estimate.
I can vividly say the amount of people that owns crypto-currency in Nigeria regardless of the amount is far more than 13 million.
In a country of over 200million and the most populated black nation Nigeria has hot boiling crypto-currency enthusiast that it's fast reaching out to people of illiterate background, old age , some aspect of online shopping.
It's time to start taking crypto-currency more seriously if you haven't yet. Those numbers on the list is set to multiply vigorously soon.

Nigeria is the most populous black nation and with a huge percentage of that amount being youths, with an inclination to technology, it's no surprise that it leads in Africa and is among the top nations on a global scale.

I would expect more growth in the couple of years, considering how slow Bitcoin was to catch up with the Bitcoin trend when compared with other Western countries, it would likely grow higher in the global list with time.

13m is not bad though, although the average internet user in
Nigeria is 84m^[1], so the percentage of crypto users out of this internet users is roughly 15%. But for a place like africa and Nigeria, that is a huge number to consider even though banks were banned^[2] dealing with on cryptocurrency.


[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183849/internet-users-nigeria/
[2] https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/cryptocurrency-usage-soars-in-nigeria-despite-bank-ban-70497781

I believe this comes without any exaggeration given the fact that, Nigerians have been at the forefront of cryptocurrency for some time. Its kind of am old nice though but, some worthy encouragement for those who leave in places where bitcoin or cryptocurrencies aren't encouraged. You can always have your thing going even in crypto ban areas. You just have to make use of the p2p system.

I don't know if this is the best place to have this discussion but, I feel the bitcoin discussion board would be some place to move the thread to. I've quote your thread to make your picture look better, your welcome!

I saw this image on Facebook and I was moved that Nigeria leads the uses of Cryptocurrencies, bitcoin in particular in Africa. The number that is using bitcoin in Nigeria is more than the number that is stated in the image. I live in the city and I can see the people who are involved in btc.



Source
Top 10 in Africa