A Bitcoin Economy Forms In Africa’s Largest Informal Settlement

High-angle view of Kibera, Kenya
Six and a half kilometers from the city center of Nairobi, Kenya lies Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Africa. In this area, home to over 500,000 residents, a Bitcoin circular economy called Afribit has been growing for the past half decade.
The Afribit team uses Bitcoin as a tool to empower the residents of Kibera.
“Bitcoin solves issues of financial sovereignty and financial inclusion,” Ronnie Mdawida, Director of the Afribit project, told me in an interview. “Some of the merchants in the community do not have any form of documentation and would not be able to participate in the traditional business ecosystem or build their lives without Bitcoin, which offers them an alternative.”
Mdawida, who has been doing community development work in Kenya for over 15 years, first learned about Bitcoin in 2019 when Yogi Golle, a Canadian citizen still living in Canada who has been donating to Mdawida’s initiatives since 2017 and who now serves as the Strategic Advisor to Afribit, taught him about its benefits.
“In 2019, I introduced Ronnie to the potential of Bitcoin and its role in financial inclusion,” Golle told me in an interview. “Our collaboration led to including Bitcoin in the community’s education programs, which laid the groundwork for the circular economy vision that Afribit embodies today.”
A street-level view of Kibera.
Frank Corva