Strike recently partnered with Bitnob to roll out a new Lighting Network-based payment service to facilitate transfers from the United States to Africa. This partnership will drive the adoption of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network on the continent.
A partnership that helps Africa
At the first edition of the Africa Bitcoin Conference organized by members of our team in Accra, the capital of Ghana, Jack Mallers, the CEO of Strike announced his intention to improve the money transfer industry in Africa.
Trotting to the podium at the conference, Strike’s CEO announced his new feature called Send Globally. It allows for instant, fast and free cross-border money transfers.
To achieve this, he made an alliance with Bitnob, an African company specialized in money transfer.
In addition, the new feature does not require users to use only Bitcoin. According to Bernard Parah, Bitnob’s CEO, Send Globally accepts all currencies used in payments.
People can now easily exchange value from the United States to people in Africa in the cheapest way possible. We can now save people sending money to Africa many dollars in transfer fees.
Bernard Parah. CEO of Bitnob
In practical terms, this feature converts the money sent directly from dollars to local currency – Nigerian naira, Kenyan shilling or Ghanaian cedi – and deposits it into the recipient’s bank account, mobile app or Bitnob wallet.
Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya are the first beneficiaries of this solution
For the moment, this service is reserved for residents of the United States and covers three African countries. These are Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. It will gradually be extended to other regions.
Thus, thanks to Send Globally, American citizens can make instant transfers to Africa without any fees.
This is very good news, as money transfers to Africa remain the most expensive in the world. According to data from the World Bank, of the $17.2 billion sent to Nigeria in 2020, the costs charged by money transfer agencies are estimated at $1.5 billion. The situation is similar in Kenya, Ghana and the rest of the continent. This partnership is a salute to the African diaspora who live only in the US. It could also push the adoption of Bitcoin on the continent.
As a journalist at Coinpri, I’ve been captivated by the world of bitcoin and blockchain since 2020. The decentralized aspect of Bitcoin particularly piqued my interest. Since then, I’ve been working constantly to spread my knowledge, hoping one day to see a world where everyone fully enjoys their financial freedom.
