A Nigerian company, SafeSenda, has made an app that makes it easier to manage, exchange, convert, spend, and settle cryptocurrency into naira bank accounts. Nkechi Iyke-Ukaegbu and Ikechukwu Ukaegbu started the company earlier this year. It was made with an easy-to-use design to make it easier to keep track of and move crypto assets.
According to Ukaegbu, the company was started because there wasn’t a safe and easy way to turn digital assets into local currency and send payments to Nigerian bank accounts. Due to the unfavourable regulatory climate, most transactions in Nigeria’s successful crypto trading and exchange business are carried out through P2P networks. He also said that P2P is mostly for people with a lot of experience, takes a lot of time, and can take anywhere from a few minutes to 72 hours to finish. There are also a lot of risks and difficult procedures involved.
However, SafeSenda claims that it streamlines the procedure and enables users to transmit cryptocurrency to their bank accounts in just minutes. Although SafeSenda is currently bootstrapped, its MVP is functional on Android and iOS, and the company plans to obtain equity capital to expand domestically and internationally, boost its liquidity pool, and ramp up marketing activities.
The startup gives people an alternative to the peer-to-peer (P2P) system, which is the most common way to convert crypto assets to local currency. By taking this step, SafeSenda is getting into the cryptocurrency market, which is full of regulatory problems and is being watched by the government.
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Nigerians find it harder to trade in cryptocurrencies now that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has told all financial institutions in the country to stop dealing in cryptocurrencies. According to the CBN, financial institutions are prohibited from dealing in digital currency until crypto trading is regulated. This new order has set off panic in the digital money market in Nigeria as people are not sure of how to deal with the situation and are curious about what will happen next.
SafeSenda Backstory
In Nigeria right now, if you own cryptocurrencies, you will discover that your bank accounts are blocked and that the money you have is being withheld from you. The Central Bank of Nigeria issued a countrywide directive prohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies in February 2021. Trading in cryptocurrencies became illegal because of the decree. This put the lives of millions of Nigerians in danger. Nigeria has been a leader in the usage of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies on the continent over the last 10 years, thanks to its rapid growth in adoption.
The increasing usage of cryptocurrencies in Nigeria excites cryptocurrency specialists and advocates. All banks were nevertheless instructed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to “avoid doing business with businesses that deal in bitcoin.” The most interesting part of the CBN’s plan may be the idea that by 2022, Nigeria will have 13 million crypto holders, up from 10 million the year before.
In its place, they use the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, in which one person sends coins to another, and the second person starts a normal bank transfer to the first person. Despite appearing simple, the P2P paradigm is fraught with danger. A few people can stop using the site after receiving bitcoin from another user. Bank transfers may sometimes be difficult and reliant on a third party. Since P2P relies on other platform users, most people believe it to be a sluggish and dangerous method.
Read also: The Explosive Growth of Blockchain Funding and Cryptocurrency in Africa
Safesenda pose as a failsafe way to convert cryptocurrencies to Nigerian Naira
SafeSenda is making an effort to solve these concerns by pitching itself as a failsafe way to convert cryptocurrencies to Nigerian Naira. SafeSenda and other crypto businesses lack the licenses to work with Nigerian banks. The SafeSenda team has created an internal approach that goes beyond the regulatory barrier put up by the CBN to provide its customers with a frictionless experience while exchanging cryptocurrencies for Naira.
One of the company’s co-founders, Ukaegbu, said that the idea for SafeSend sprang from the need to address several issues with P2P trade in Nigeria. Nigeria’s rapidly growing crypto trading and exchange industry is almost entirely done through peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms. This is because the country’s laws aren’t very friendly. P2P is often only used by those with outstanding expertise since it takes a long time to complete—up to 72 hours in some instances. The founders focus on the minimum viable product (MVP) when a business is still in the bootstrapping phase.
