Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Fintech Friday series

on the sound of accra podcast, where we unpack economic

topics and affairs across the African continent. I'm

your host, Adrian Daniels. This special series on

FinTech Friday is the 6th of a 12 part series

where we explore blockchain technology and cryptocurrency

in a lot more detail. Special thanks to our sponsors, Binance

Africa. Binance is the world's leading blockchain

ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with

a financial product suite that includes the largest digital

asset exchange by volume. Trusted by minions worldwide,

the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for

users and features and unmatched portfolio of crypto products and

offerings, including trading and finance, education,

data and research, social good,

investment, and incubation, decentralization and

infrastructure solutions, and more. For more information,

visit www.binance.com.

For more information, disclaimers, risk warnings, and links,

please check the podcast description section. In today's episode,

we will explore how the role of cryptocurrencies in

Africa could spell the end of remittances in

Ghana, including exploring ideas such as the potential

impact of crypto on traditional remittances,

some advantages of cryptocurrencies for remittances,

and addressing economic challenges in Ghana. References

used for today's episode will all be found in the podcast player description

section below. Now let's get straight into it. The role of

cryptocurrencies in Africa, in particular in Ghana, could make

a huge impact in traditional remittance systems.

Now I think this could spur the beginning of the end of the remittance platforms.

Nevertheless, I also feel that this could take quite a bit of time for

this to go mainstream as a huge proportion of the Ghanaian

population are accustomed to mobile money technology. Especially as

some Ghanaians can't afford smartphones nor do they know even

how to use them. Now for cryptocurrency to be the norm in

a Ghanaian society, this would rely solely on

smartphone adoption in addition to cryptocurrency education

being dominant in the country. Now brands and

organisations such as Binance are playing their part here with

resources such as the Binance Academy being available not

only to Ghanaians alike but also the rest of the world. Until

cryptocurrency education and smartphone ownership drastically

increases, cryptocurrency spelling the end of remittances in

Ghana can only be seen as an event that could take place

far into the future. A future with cryptocurrency

replacing remittances would certainly be a promising one.

Let's look at what factors would accelerate or influence this in

happening. Number 1. The need for lower

costs, faster transaction speeds, and increased

accessibility. Now the e levy tax imposed

on Ghanaian citizens for mobile money transactions is an extra cost

that has to be in the order, unfortunately. Now Ghanaians are always on the

lookout for ways to eliminate or to minimize this cost enforced by the

government. So they can have more money in their pockets. Now these

fees are almost zeroed out with cryptocurrency.

In addition to that, mobile money transactions used

amongst our names are fairly quick for transferring funds from one

business or person to another. Whilst transferring funds

within Africa or even beyond Africa is still a

relatively slow process and still exists as a challenge.

However, using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or

even Binance's BNB coin, this process could take a

matter of seconds. On top of that,

cryptocurrencies can provide financial services to the unbanked

population which is significant in Ghana.

Now in terms of addressing economic challenges, Ghana is currently facing

economic challenges that make cryptocurrency an attractive alternative

to traditional financial systems set up, including the Ghanaian

city, credit cards, debit cards, mobile money, you

name it. However, the Ghanaian city has experienced a

rapid depreciation, and it's fallen by almost

40% against the US dollar over the last 12 months,

whilst inflation taking place at almost the same rate is

happening. Now these two things happening at the same time and

almost at the same rate has been such a devastating effect

for Ghanaians and businesses trading in Ghana.

As discussed with Yandi Nometi, operations manager from

Binance Africa, in episode 5 of the Fintech Friday

special edition series with Binance Africa, we

discussed the potential role of crypto in Ghana's road to economic

recovery, employing cryptocurrency as a great

way to hedge against inflation and protect against the

devaluation of the Ghanaian city. So for any

listeners who haven't listened to the episode, I'll highly encourage you to go

ahead and listen to that episode. And last but not

least, let's take a look at cryptocurrency based remittances.

Now cryptocurrency based remittances weighed against traditional

remittances. It can't even be compared. It's not even a comparison.

Crypto remittances would mean significantly lower transaction

costs. In some cases, 0, instant transfer

speeds, and also the ability to provide digital wallets to the

unbanked or on your smartphone or digital devices, which is

fantastic. Now cryptocurrency face challenges such as with

regulation frameworks, potential security risks, whilst their advantages in cost, speed, and

accessibility makes them a fantastic competitor to the traditional remittance

systems, as we know in Ghana,

such as mobile money. And of course platforms,

you know, that you use as charts of money are brought. This laundry list

of factors are just some of the reasons why cryptocurrency

hasn't quite gone mainstream in Ghana and and even other

African countries just yet. That there's still a lot of work

to do before we can get there. As adoption and education

increases alongside regulatory frameworks evolving,

cryptocurrencies could potentially replace a significant portion

of traditional remittance flows, spelling a decline for

conventional remittance services in Ghana. Thank you again for

listening to today's episode. Once again, for more information on

Binance and the disclaimers, risk warnings, and links,

please check the podcast description section below. You'll also

find references from today's episode. See you in the next episode.

Thank you. Bye bye.