Why is Uganda chasing cryptocurrency?

When we speak about the world of blockchain, most people perceive it as a technology for the developed world, and something unachievable for developing countries on continents such as Africa.

However, even though the implementation and adaptation of the technology are lagging behind in these regions, the interest surpasses even the largest crypto hubs such as China and the USA.

A simple Google trends analysis shows us that Ugandans are in the Top 5 most crypto interesting countries in the world, alongside some African countries such as Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria.

In fact, Ugandans have already begun to switch to cryptocurrencies and are abandoning traditional trading assets. One such example is gold as newer generations are starting to form different perceptions of wealth.

How did the interest in crypto grow?

The unemployment rate in Uganda is much lower than most of its neighbors, but it still manages to affect the local population’s well-being. Over the course of 5 years, it has been on the rise as fewer and fewer skilled labor becomes available in the country.

Young people are quickly replaced by remote workers from abroad or simply lose their jobs due to automation. The only way these people could survive was to find their own ways of earning at least some income while the job market was becoming increasingly difficult.

Fortunately, during those 5 years of employment decline, many Ugandans started to see relative success in the cryptocurrency markets and shared this information to their relatives as well as their friends. Soon enough, the whole country was aware of cryptos, but not the blockchain technology. Everybody knew that it was a way to make quick money and stay afloat for years to come.

The devastation of unemployment for young people was seemingly mitigated by success stories in cryptocurrency markets, and now Ugandans are the ones who research both crypto and blockchain most often. But still, they fall behind their South African contemporaries in terms of possession.

Traditional financial markets lost face

Traditional financial markets, such as Forex, stocks, and commodities quickly lost face with the Ugandan trader community. This was due to the onslaught of scammer companies that ravaged the country and stole more than $1 million within just a single quarter.

Soon enough, Ugandans became very suspicious of even those companies that held licenses and were famous abroad. Only cryptocurrencies were showing relative safety when compared to other markets.

Furthermore, Ugandans struggled to achieve as much success in traditional markets as they could in the crypto market. You see, most of the traditional markets require large funds in order to make large profits. Large funds are something hard to come by in Uganda, so it’s obvious they wouldn’t be a very interesting investment for the local community.

As soon as some savvy investors that entered the market in 2011 or 2012 made tens of thousands of dollars from just a hundred or so as investments, everybody was aboard the hype train.

What does the future have in store?

The cryptocurrency market right now may not be in the best shape, but it still has a large potential to grow in the future. Furthermore, with a region like Uganda, where the blockchain presence isn’t too big, the only thing it can do is grow.

The hope for getting more adherents makes many people consider the African region as one of the largest cryptocurrency hubs in the future.

With the interest that Ugandans, Nigerians, and Ghanaians are showing to the technology, and with the South Africans already being ranked #1 for possession, it’s obvious that many crypto companies and exchanges would benefit from tapping into the African market.

It is not out of the question that we will be seeing some major blockchain developments in above-mentioned countries very soon.