Africa and the Middle East
Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country.
Namibia
Wildlife conservationist using crypto for preservation activities: A wildlife conservation expert based in Namibia is using Bitcoin Cash to help save the precious wildlife in the country.
Nadja Leroux is using Bitcoin Cash (BCH) for faster transactions and raising capital for her efforts. The idea is to create a fund to help raise money for crucial conservation technology in the wilderness. The main species she is trying to save include African wild dogs.
South Africa
South Africa gets perfect score in crypto interest study: While the pace of cryptocurrency adoption is increasing in African countries, South Africa has surprising outperformed countries like USA and Russia in this particular search interest, according to a published report of Google trends in the world.
South Africa got the perfect score of 100 in the study out of a possible 100 for cryptocurrency search-related activity. The US got a paltry 52 while countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia got 13 and 7 respectively. While cryptocurrency interest is increasing a lot in the country, there is still plenty of work that needs to be done on the ground to facilitate and educate the masses on digital currencies before this interest can be converted into actual investments and startups.
Zimbabwe
Finance minister calls for greater crypto investment: The new finance minister of Zimbabwe has called for increased participation in the local cryptocurrency community as he sees them as a way out for the country from troubled economic times.
In an interview with ITWebAfrica, newly sworn-in minister Mthuli Ncube said that most central banks around the world are rejecting these innovations and or taking time in adopting them while smart countries like Switzerland are adopting them and wasting no time in doing so.
Elaborating further he said, “One can pay for travel using Bitcoin in Switzerland. So, if these countries can see value in this and where it’s headed, we should also pay attention. We have innovative youngsters so the idea shouldn’t be to stop it and say don’t do this, but rather the regulators should invest in catching up with them and find ways to understand it, then you regulate it because you now understand it.”
Zimbabwe is currently in a currency crisis and that has made public access to money extremely difficult. Mthuli believes that the answer to the current crisis lies in the adoption of popular cryptocurrencies across the country.
Israel
Israel and Switzerland work together for crypto regulation: The Swiss government is looking to work with the government of Israel for cryptocurrency regulation and opening up of trade.
According to a Reuters report, Swiss finance minister Ueli Maurer recently visited Israel for talks regarding opening up trade between the countries and Swiss banks gaining access to Israeli markets. The two sides have also agreed to collaborate on financial technology and cryptocurrency regulation as part of the opening up of trade.
UAE
Abu Dhabi calls for international crypto regulation efforts: The top financial regulator of Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, has called for an international approach towards regulating cryptocurrencies in the world.
The National reported that during the recent Fintech Abu Dhabi event, Ricard Teng, the head of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), said that negative news impact cryptocurrencies as assets.
He said, “This space needs to be properly regulated, otherwise there is the risk of financial crime.”
While other sections of the UAE have called for a speedier adoption of cryptocurrencies in the country, Teng is one of the first to have voiced caution.
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