High-angle view of Kibera, Kenya
Six and a half kilometers from the city center of Nairobi, Kenya lies Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Africa. In this area, home to over 500,000 residents, a Bitcoin circular economy called Afribit has been growing for the past half decade.
The Afribit team uses Bitcoin as a tool to empower the residents of Kibera.
“Bitcoin solves issues of financial sovereignty and financial inclusion,” Ronnie Mdawida, Director of the Afribit project, told me in an interview. “Some of the merchants in the community do not have any form of documentation and would not be able to participate in the traditional business ecosystem or build their lives without Bitcoin, which offers them an alternative.”
Mdawida, who has been doing community development work in Kenya for over 15 years, first learned about Bitcoin in 2019 when Yogi Golle, a Canadian citizen still living in Canada who has been donating to Mdawida’s initiatives since 2017 and who now serves as the Strategic Advisor to Afribit, taught him about its benefits.
“In 2019, I introduced Ronnie to the potential of Bitcoin and its role in financial inclusion,” Golle told me in an interview. “Our collaboration led to including Bitcoin in the community’s education programs, which laid the groundwork for the circular economy vision that Afribit embodies today.”
A street-level view of Kibera.
Bitcoin And Financial Inclusion
Mdawida explained that many of Kibera’s residents cannot utilize the traditional financial system in Kenya.
He explained that of the 50 participants who partake in a waste management program in the community through which they are reimbursed in sats (fractions of a bitcoin), the majority either don’t have or don’t use banking services.
“With this sample of 50 participants, 19 do not have IDs or bank accounts, and 14 have bank accounts they’ve never used,” said Mdawida. “They were forced to open accounts because they were expecting funding from donations that never materialized.”
Mdawida added that others from this sample group had their bank accounts closed due to inactivity or because they couldn’t maintain the monthly fees.
Serah Mucha, an administrator in the Afribit program, commented on this issue, as well.
“Bitcoin is particularly valuable to those excluded from traditional banking systems due to a lack of documentation or financial capacity,” Mucha told me in an interview.
“Many in these communities are forced to store cash at home, exposing them to risk of theft. While mobile money services like M-Pesa are widely used, their high transaction costs and vulnerability to practices such as fund reversals make them less favorable for business transactions,” she added.
“Bitcoin addresses these challenges, offering a more secure and cost-effective alternative.”
Afribit’s Programs And Successes
Afribit started as an e-commerce platform called Afribit Marketplace through which residents of the community could sell their goods online in exchange for bitcoin.
Mdawida shared that the “timing wasn’t right back then” for something like this, but that he and the Afribit team still plans to bring this dimension of the project to life.
In more recent years, Afribit has blossomed into a broader project. It now offers “Bitcoin 101” and coding classes, both of which have contributed to community members finding “meaningful jobs that help them contribute to the circular economy,” according to Mdawida.
Some of the students who took these classes are now working as full-stack developers, website designers and IT technicians, and one is currently helping to design a Lightning Network wallet that will cater to the needs of the Afribit community.
Mdawida and his team also manage the aforementioned waste management program, which is funded by donations and serves as a significant source of employment for its participants.
The participants are paid for collecting and recycling waste and attending Bitcoin education sessions.
Golle sees this particular effort as a win-win in that it helps with environmental rehabilitation while deepening the Bitcoin knowledge of its participants, who then teach other members of the community about Bitcoin. He hopes to expand the initiative.
“The ultimate vision is to reinvest proceeds from recycling into sats, ensuring the program’s long-term sustainability and growth,” he said. “To further expand its capacity and efficiency, there is a pressing need to invest in shredders and sorting equipment, which would allow the program to handle larger volumes of recyclable materials.”
What is more, the Afribit team has now onboarded more than 40 merchants who now use bitcoin not only to accept payments for their services, but to save, as well.
A merchant in Kibera who accepts bitcoin.
“Some merchants are now using bitcoin as a financial planning tool for their families,” said Golle.
Mdawida noted that while the merchants have appreciated the increase in bitcoin’s price through 2024, some have actually become a bit skeptical of the asset as a result, which is one of the challenges Afribit faces.
Challenges
“Some view bitcoin as ‘too good to be true,’ especially given the price increase over the past few months,” said Mdawida. “However, with more education, we’re seeing users and merchants becoming more comfortable and engaged with Bitcoin.”
Mucha noted that while merchants are currently excited to share their experience in using Bitcoin with other merchants in the community, the success of Afribit will hinge on maintaining its current momentum.
“The primary challenge now is to ensure the continuity of the cycle, keeping the flow of sats unbroken and the ecosystem thriving,” said Mucha.
“It is crucial to maintain sufficient bitcoin liquidity, which comes from donations, grants and people coming into the community and spending sats. This will make the venture lucrative enough to attract more widespread participation,” she added.
Mdawida noted that the project has only reached residents of the western side of Kibera, which is called Soweto West, and that he intends to expand its reach.
“Other villages are calling for us to expand, as all 11 villages in Kibera are quite interconnected,” said Mdawida. “We need more partnerships and more liquidity to scale up.”
A Model Bitcoin Community For East Africa
Moving forward, the Afribit team is excited to roll out new products and to set in motion a number of new initiatives.
These include a financing project that offers merchants bitcoin loans to help grow their businesses, a customer loyalty program for merchants and customers to help drive Bitcoin adoption and a peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange that will help to onboard new users to Bitcoin.
With everything that Afribit is building, Golle hopes it will become a model for the region.
“By combining education, empowerment, and technology, we are creating a sustainable Bitcoin circular economy that has the potential to transform financial access across Kibera and beyond,” said Golle. “With strategic partnerships, scalable initiatives, and the resilience of the Kibera community, Afribit is poised to become a beacon of financial inclusion for East Africa.”
