🟠 A new Consensys report says Nigeria and SA lead the world for crypto awareness 🤔

A new Consensys report says Nigeria and South Africa lead the world in crypto awareness

Topline: Nigeria and South Africa emerged as leaders in cryptocurrency awareness, according to findings from a new survey from blockchain venture studio Consensys and market research firm YouGov. The question, however, is, who did they survey? (Details)

• The study, which involved more than 15,000 people from 15 countries globally, found that 92% of the respondents are aware of cryptocurrencies. The survey sampled 1,001 Nigerians and 1,003 South Africans.
• According to the report, almost the entire population in Nigeria (99%) and South Africa (98%) has heard of cryptocurrencies ... and as many as 4 in 5 (in Nigeria) and 3 in 5 (in South Africa) understand what cryptocurrencies are.
• Overall, the report doesn’t say anything new other than rehash the narrative that Africa is leading the world for crypto interest/adoption.

💭 Oluwaseun’s thought cloud: I’m beginning to take reports like these with a pinch of salt because they hardly represent the reality on the ground.

• It’s worth remembering that market research work like this typically samples a portion of the target audience to understand that audience better.
• That’s why a report that surveyed 100,000 Kenyans out of a population of just over 50 million would extrapolate and say something along the lines of 70% of Kenyans [insert the research outcome]
• All things equal, the sample size should represent the diversity of the target population, and the final report must be clear about the sampling process to demonstrate that diversity.

However, Consensys and YouGov haven’t provided sufficient sampling information to prove that the 1,001 Nigerians and 1,003 South Africans genuinely represent the diversity of those countries.

• The report only “32 questions were administered to a representative sample of each’s population between April 26th and May 18th, 2023.” Also, those samples were online.
• Simply put, there’s no way an online sample size of just over 2,000 people represents the Nigerian and South African populations.
• My biggest takeaway is that African researchers need to get involved and provide data representative of our realities.

25 African countries are exploring CBDCs

Topline: A new report from U.S.-based research firm The Atlantic Council revealed that 130 countries are exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and 25 are in Africa. (Details)

• The firm noted that Nigeria is still the only African country to have launched a CBDC.
• Ghana, South Africa and Tunisia are currently piloting CBDCs, Benin Republic’s digital currency status was marked ‘inactive,’ and Senegal’s project was canceled. Mauritius’ CBDC project is at its development stage.
• Most of the other African CBDC projects tracked are still in the research phase.

Catch up

🌍 Kushite East Africa launches web3 hub to drive blockchain adoption (Read here)

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s new economic reforms an opportunity to achieve growth — World Bank (Read here)

🇧🇼 After protracted negotiations, Botswana gets more diamonds from De Beers, the builder of the blockchain-based provenance platform, Tracr. (Read here)

🇳🇬 Nigerian crypto tax move is ‘premature’ — local stakeholders (Cointelegraph)

By the number

Why it matters: For a long time, decentralized finance (DeFi) was touted to play a part in filling the MSME funding gap, albeit with few activities.

• However, Jia’s recent fundraising is bringing life to that narrative.
• Mariblock lead editor Oluwaseun Adeyanju spoke with Jia CEO Zach Marks to learn more about the product. Watch it here

A tiny ask  🙏🏾

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That’s it for this week.

See you next week.

Cheers,

Oluwaseun.