Africa — The Next Financial Powerhouse of the World?
How the continent is poised take the lead in next gen currency
We’re totally spoiled in the West and we don’t even realize it half the time.
Not only do we take basics like food, water, housing, education and even electricity for granted, we also think of our banking facilities, as imperfect as they often are, as something that’s just always there when we need it.
Want to order a pizza for delivery? No problem. In fact, you can use your saved credit card details to do it more quickly. Pay a bill online? Send money over to your mates for that weekend away? All easy and all, incidentally, only available in the last couple of decades, even though it’s already completely entrenched in our modern lives.
In Africa, however, things are different. Only around 43% of the sub-Saharan population have access to any sort of electricity (source: Brookings), and only 34% have access to banking facilities (source: The World Bank).
In short, most people have neither. The figures are not much better for internet access, with only 39.3% having it, and seven of Africa’s countries have access numbers of less than 10%. (source: internetworldstats.com)
