Binance which is the largest crypto exchange is planning to launch a fiat trading pair in Uganda. The CEO and Founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao told Cointelegraph that the company is launching a crypto-fiat exchange in Uganda.
This will make Binance Uganda be the first time that the largest exchange in terms of volume is stepping into the fiat-crypto field. It will support the Ugandan Shilling together with other common digital currencies.
Unbanked population
This is a major step in trying to take cryptocurrency trading to the unbanked population. It is estimated that approximately 89% of the Ugandan population do not access financial services. Hence, Binance Uganda intends to tap at this opportunity by trying to ensure Ugandans own digital currencies for the first time in their lives.
The crypto firm stated that it thinks that crypto has a very strong use case in less developed countries. It feels that there is more money to be made in a more developed country, but the exchange wants to distribute crypto to the rest of the world.
Receptive to digital technology
The move into Uganda has not been that difficult since the Uganda government is receptive to the digital technology. Uganda’s Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Vicente Waiswa had announced previously that his country’s government was exploring several blockchains uses. He had stated that the government is going to use blockchain technology wherever it is appropriate, to provide seamless services to the general public.
Binance’s CEO echoed the companies interest in expanding to the African market and he confirmed that the Ugandan project had been progressing really fast since the country’s government was supportive.
He stated that Uganda is a really interesting situation with only 11% of the population has bank accounts. He reiterated that it is both a challenge and an opportunity. He said that it may be easier to adopt cryptocurrency as a form of currency instead of trying to push for bank adoption. He concluded that the company was there since Africa is a big market and termed the project as an interesting experiment.
Although Binance Uganda will operate in the same way as the existing network, it will operate as an independent exchange to the parent company.
