Kenya set to scale up adoption of cryptocurrencies in 2022

Kenya is set to lead the world’s peer to peer cryptocurrency market for the second consecutive year according to Marius Reitz, the general manager for the Luno cryptocurrency exchange in Africa.

In justifying his selection of Kenya ahead of the usual heavyweights, Reitz is quoted in a report pointing to the East African country’s booming crypto market as well as Kenyan people’s familiarity with digital payment solutions.

“The country’s crypto industry is booming with a rapidly emerging crop of companies building blockchain-based solutions and considering its young population, high heels of mobile connectivity and familiarity with digital payment solutions like mobile money, it’s firmly positioned to emerge as East Africa’s leading crypto hub in 2022,” Reitz is quoted in the report explaining.

It has been previously reported on the surge in Kenya’s peer to peer cryptocurrency volumes which had seen topple South Africa to become the country with the second-highest peer to peer volumes in Africa.

Cryptos as an alternative Currency

Besides predicting Kenya’s continued dominance of the peer to peer cryptocurrency market, Reitz is also quoted in the report explaining the continuing difficulties faced by African companies that wish to access foreign currency from formal markets. He predicts that such Africa based companies will be forced to “look towards cryptocurrencies as an alternative means of handling cross-border transactions.”

However, Reitz is quoted in the same report warning that real progress in this area will also depend on the progress on the regulatory front. He said:

Similar to most aspects of the crypto industry, progress in this area will be heavily dependent on a favorable regulatory climate and should this materialize, cryptocurrencies could emerge as a major asset for companies with extensive operations throughout Africa.

Despite these and other potential hurdles, Reitz still reiterated his belief that Africa is in a better position to adopt cryptocurrencies than other continents.