Quarantine and Remittance
While reading crypto-related news online, I came across an article with a surprising title: African Migrants Are Turning to Cryptocurrency Platforms for 'Low-Fee Remittances'.
The reason I find this surprising was not because migrant workers are using cryptocurrency to transfer money but because these migrant workers still do it despite the fact that the central banks of Africa has tried to ban cryptocurrencies for some time now.
Now, I do understand why these migrant workers are doing this – they don’t have much of a choice.
With the Covid-19 pandemic not showing signs of going away soon, and various governments restricting human movement, traditional money transfer channels were greatly affected – limiting the options of migrant workers (mostly Africans) who wanted to send money to their families back in their home countries.
To counteract this, most African migrant workers turned to cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency platforms – turning the aforementioned cryptocurrency platforms into ‘low-fee remittance center’ of sort.
If you’re looking for another reason the banning of cryptocurrencies in the African continent, or pretty much anywhere in the world in general was such a bad idea, you just found one…
Truth be told though, I don’t find this surprising at all.
Now that most people are stuck at home due to the quarantine, and many businesses closing, the internet had become sort of a last bastion while cryptocurrencies became the currency of choice.
Using cryptocurrencies like BCH, people could just go online to safely shop for daily necessities, pay bills, or avail for services like money transfer (remittance).
The reason cryptocurrency platforms became popular for money transfer services were because it was secure and cost effective.
If migrant workers uses traditional wired money transfer services, the amount of money their families could receive after paying for fess would be much less if they use cryptocurrencies.
Of course not all cryptocurrencies are good for this purpose. Using BTC or ETH to transfer money is obviously not a good idea considering the exorbitant transaction and gas fees that users have to pay for each transaction. BCH, LTC, DASH, XRP, and even DOGE are better options in this regard.
Rise in Popularity and Cryptocurrency Banning
You might be surprised to hear that one of the reasons why the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) wanted to ban Nigerian banks from servicing crypto-related platforms has something to do with topic being discussed here.
Due to the rising popularity of using cryptocurrencies like BCH as a method of transferring money, the popularity of traditional wired money transfer had dropped significantly.
The reason cryptocurrency platforms were more popular was mainly because of the lower fees that using cryptocurrency entails compared to using traditional wired money transfer.
Judging from the action of the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) till now, it was obvious to see that the central bank of Nigeria wanted to curtail the rise of cryptocurrency and prevent it from going mainstream.
But whether CBN would be really successful in curtailing the growing popularity of cryptocurrency in Nigeria remained to be seen...
Anyways... Using cryptocurrency platforms as a cost-effective remittance option wasn’t just limited to the African migrant workers, and the African continent. Migrant workers from other developing countries were also using this strategy to save on transaction fees.
Not that anyone could blame them for it. If you could save on fees and send more money to your family abroad, why would you use the more expensive traditional wired money transfer?
If I were in there shoes, I’ll use cryptocurrencies too!
Unfortunately, some countries like Nigeria and India weren’t that open-minded when it comes to cryptocurrencies.
Despite the obvious benefit that cryptocurrency brings to the people, some governments and its central banks are treating cryptocurrencies as threat to their respective economy.
If they look at the long term benefits of cryptocurrency, they would realize that they’re doing their country and countrymen a disservice.
Thankfully though, majority of countries around the world were more open-minded compared to countries like Nigeria, and even India.
Of course, most governments do have their doubts and prejudice when it comes to cryptocurrency, but despite this though; the governments in these countries still chooses not to close their doors on cryptocurrency thus allowing their people to benefit from the rising technology.
What do you guys think of the topic being discussed on this article?
Please write your thoughts in the comment section below!
Thank you for reading.
The Online Article I've Mentioned in this Post:
Image Source:
https://pixabay.com/photos/coins-banknotes-money-currency-1726618/
https://pixabay.com/photos/cryptocurrency-coin-blockchain-3409724/
Great post 🙏🏾