As some of you guessed I didn't really send £1000 worth of bitcoin to Namibia but what I wanted to do was discuss and highlight the difficulties of using the currency in places where it would be most beneficial.
I am married into a Namibian family. My wife likes to send funds to her parents in Namibia every couple of months. She has been doing this for the last 9 years.
Currently they use one of her bankcards and she has given them her PIN. She uses a UK bank account specifically for the purpose.
So, when she decides she wants to send money she transfers money from regular account to the account her parents have a card for and just does a regular bank transfer. This works fine however she probably shouldn't have given her card and PIN to someone else.
Most people are not in a position to do this.
I guess bitcoin just isn't ready for these communities yet.
I was thinking about a scam, as I was doubting there's a phone network in Northern Namibia. This is no London! And driving to SA isn't an option, African roads mean the journey would take 3 days. So there's an opportunity. It's probably very small because of Northern Namibia being so remote, but Africa badly needs
BTC-to-cash shops. In America, there used to be many small shops offering people without a bank account to cash their checks, the same thing needs to be done in every large city in Africa.
Otherwise, the credit card solution is a good one, but I understand it can only be done within a family.
