Nigeria is one of the few countries that feels the effects of currency devaluation and inflation as strongly as other countries. The country’s grocery prices tend to rise significantly from month to month. This means that many Nigerians who have stagnant income are always looking for other ways to make money. This is a part of the reason Nigeria has one the highest crypto adoption rates.
Many Nigerians see cryptocurrency as more than a tool for wealth building. It’s also a way to get out. It’s still early days for cryptocurrency adoption in Nigeria, West Africa. Only a small percentage of the country’s population uses digital assets.
Moyo Sodipo and Michael Adeyeri, two friends, are seeking to join the next few millions of Nigerians in the crypto economy.
Jump Capital led a seed round that raised $4.2 million for the duo’s company . The round also included Cadenza Ventures and Blockwall Capital, CMT Digital as well as Raba Capital, Greenhouse Capital, Greenhouse Capital, Greenhouse Capital, Raba Capital, and CMT Digital.
Jump Capital has raised $350 million to fund its seventh fund. Forbes reported the venture capital firm will dedicate 40% of the fund for the crypto market.
Jump partner Peter Johnson commented on Busha’s investment.
“We believe that Nigeria and Africa are the best places for crypto to have a significant impact on providing financial freedom to millions.
Busha intends to use the capital for product development, growth, expansion in Nigeria, and talent acquisition. In the next few months, Busha plans to open shops in Ghana, Kenya, and other francophone African countries.
Busha was launched in 2019 and quietly has amassed more than 200,000 registered users (not necessarily active). The team’s commitment to building the products and services that their customers desire has driven the company’s growth.
Busha’s current chief product officer, Sodipo, stated that ‘our approach to building has always been focused on customer obsession. “We pay so much attention what our customers want, versus what is being done by our competitors.
Busha has built trust with customers, which has allowed for a significant growth engine: word of mouth.
“We quickly realized that referrals were the best way to get more customers, because we provide exactly what they need,” Adeyeri, Busha’s CEO, said.
Busha was customer-centric when he built a crypto exchange that provided a similar experience to traditional Nigerian finance.
First, Nigeria is among 56 countries with enabled real time payments in one form or another. The technology that allows instant bank transfers is managed by Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc., which is owned by all licensed banks in Nigeria. Busha attempted to duplicate this experience by providing instant deposits into user’s wallets and instant bank withdrawals. Luno, an international crypto exchange that was larger than Busha, only processed withdrawals to Nigerian banks during certain hours of the day.
Additionally, Nigerians prefer services that provide real-time, 24-hour communication, especially in financial services. Many banks in Nigeria offer customer support 24 hours a day via various channels.
Busha, for its part, claims that it offers live support in-app 24 hours a day. Adeyeri, Sodipo, and Sodipo claim that their company is the first to offer live chat and round-the-clock withdrawals to Nigerian crypto services.
As it adds the next 1 million users to the crypto economy, it remains to be seen how the company will sustain its 24 customer support operations.
The exchange is currently building its future on feedback from customers.
Sodipo stated that his day includes connecting support and marketing teams with engineering teams to ensure that all feedback from customers is passed on. “We don’t build features based only on what we like, we build and ship features based upon what our customers want.”
Adeyeri said that Busha will next offer features to make crypto more accessible.
Recently, the company launched a new app that allows users to make recurring cryptocurrency purchases. This is the foundation of the popular dollar cost averaging investment strategy.
Busha will continue to add new features in the future. The exchange will offer a savings feature in December that allows users to earn interest on crypto.
The exchange will also unveil a spending feature that allows users to spend cryptocurrency at selected online and offline retailers in the first quarter 2022.
Adeyeri stated that SureGifts, a gift card company, has entered into a partnership to allow customers to spend crypto at their merchant network, which includes Shoprite, Spart, and Jumia.
Busha isn’t the only Nigerian cryptocurrency service that offers tools for making recurring purchases or spending crypto. Accrue and Bitnob already provide dollar-cost averaging. Fluidcoin is also building a crypto payment infrastructure.
The crypto landscape in Nigeria is still uncertain. In fact, the central bank of Nigeria has banned financial institutions from doing business earlier than 2021 with cryptocurrency companies.