By Susie Violet Ward · City A.M. · 14 August 2023
Written as a City A.M. column in August 2023, the piece looks at Machankura, a bitcoin company working in regions where nearly 45% of the population was unbanked. Machankura lets people send and receive bitcoin over SMS and USSD, without internet access or a smartphone, using the Lightning Network in seven African countries including Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. Its director, Noelyne Sumba, said, “Our USSD platform stands as a testament to the power of innovation,” and described the integration of the Lightning Network as “a significant milestone.”
The column notes disruptions to USSD services in Uganda and Tanzania. Sumba saw education, cross-border remittances and currency devaluation as the main drivers of bitcoin’s growth over the following five to ten years, and likened bitcoin to a digital Mona Lisa. The column argues that countries affected by colonialism and foreign interference were embracing bitcoin, and that the West risked falling behind.