Local Bitcoin Remittance service Bitstake launches in Nigeria

Bitstake, a cryptocurrency exchange startup, offers a wide range of solutions to the 178 million people of Nigeria. Unlike most Bitcoin exchanges, which rely on users having access to the Internet in order to serve them, Bitstake has made it possible for its customers to access and use their wallets through SMS.

This gives it a strong proposition in a country where only 38% of the population has access to the Internet, compared to a mobile phone penetration of close to 100%.

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa, as well as the largest economy, with a 2013 GDP of $523 billion. Ironically, Bitcoin-related enterprises have been relatively slow to take hold there. This is why many Bitcoin enthusiasts on the continent will be watching to see how Bitstake performs in the coming months.

Speaking to CoinTelegraph, the company’s CTO Alexander Christian said that Bitstake offers a platform that makes it easy for the local Bitcoin community to exchange between cryptocurrencies and naira, the local fiat currency.

Christian said the startup targets Nigerians who live abroad and frequently send money back home to their families. It gives them a secure and fast remittance service at a cost of 1%, which is much cheaper than the fees that MoneyGram or Western Union charge. He adds:

“By creating a wallet on Bitstake, one can send and receive money from anywhere in the world at the cost of 1% of the value moved. Those who choose to have their funds held on the platform will also earn interest. Furthermore, there are options of trading, lending and getting low-cost loans."
The Challenge

Exchange and remittance, however, are not the only services Bitstake is putting forward. It also offers individuals and businesses an opportunity to acquire loans at very low cost through a peer-to-peer lending platform.

On the other hand, the company promises lenders in this arrangement, as well as those who save on the platform, a higher interest rate than what they would get if they saved their money in a bank account.

The exchange also has a trading section where you can buy and sell Bitcoin, Ripple, Blackcoin, and their native coin Bitstake against the naira to make a profit out of the price movement occasioned by demand-and-supply market forces.

Achieving success in all areas—the exchange and the peer-to-peer lending and trading services, as well as with its own crypto coin—however, might turn out to be the biggest challenge the company will face.

Cashing out into the local currency may also remain a pain point for customers. Unlike in Kenya where exchanges such as Bitpesa and Tagpesa found an infrastructure in Mpesa that made it easy to change between fiat and bitcoin, Bitstake customers will still have to go through a bank to get their money in naira. This is because mobile money service is still alien to Nigeria.

Christian, whose is working toward earning a masters in cyber security at the University of Oxford, says Bitstake has taken every possible measure in terms of security. This includes holding the bulk amount of clients’ funds in cold storage.
Bitstake Is a Proof-of-Stake Coin

Bitstake (XBS) is the native proof-of-stake coin of the platform, which has a total of 1,302,037 units. It can be exchanged for the other crypto coins, as well as the naira.

Christian says that Bitstake is in beta, but they have plans to launch early in May 2015, if all goes according to plan. He adds:


“It is after David could not find a faster and secure way to send money to his family in Nigeria that he invited me and [Roy] Carlos to work on the idea of Bitstake.”

The startup was founded by Christian, Carlos (who is the senior project manager) and David Ajayi, a Nigerian whose challenges in sending money home from England gave birth to the idea.

In order to encourage more signups from Nigerians, Bitstake plans to give out a bonus of 100 naira for every exchange account created and verified once the platform is up and running.


Coin Telegraph



Related story: Bitcoin exchange market coming to Nigeria

President elect Muhammadu Buhari to investigate Nigeria's missing $20 billion in oil revenue

Nigerian presidential-elect Muhammadu Buhari yesterday revealed that he is to investigate an alleged $20bn hole in the finances of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) when he is sworn in next month.

In a meeting with a delegation from the All Progressive’s Congress (APC) party’s Adamawa State chapter at his headquarters in the capital, Abuja, the former military ruler announced that he would investigate the claim of the former governor of the Nigerian Central Bank, Lamido Sanusi - now the emir of the northern city of Kano - that $20bn (£13.13bn) could not be accounted for.

Sanusi was suspended by president Goodluck Jonathan for “financial recklessness and misconduct” last year after he exposed the alleged shortfall in oil revenues in 2012 and 2013. At the time, the NNPC denied that any money was “missing” but Buhari, who will be sworn in on May 29, has now criticised the decision to sack Sanusi instead of investigating his claims.

"This issue is not over yet. Once we assume office, we will order a fresh probe into the matter,” the former oil minister confirmed in his address. “We will not allow people to steal money meant for Nigerians to buy shares and stash away in foreign lands."

"Imagine a situation where the former CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) governor, who by God's grace, is now the emir of Kano, raised an issue of missing billions of money, not in naira but in dollars, $20 billion,” Buhari continued.

"What happened, instead of investigating whether it was true, they simply found a reason to remove him. So, these are the issues we are talking about,” he added. "I heard that some people have started returning money; I will not believe it until I see it by myself.

At the same time as the announcement, Nigeria’s Petroleum Resources minister Diezani Alison-Madueke announced that an unremitted payment of $1.4bn would be refunded to state coffers on recommendation of an audit carried out by Jonathan, Africa-focused outlet Sahara Reporters reported.

His confirmation of the oil probe comes as little surprise, says Manji Cheto, vice-president of risk consultancy Teneo Intelligence, with the incoming leader looking to assert his authority and build his credibility and he has long spoken of the oil ministry with suspicion.

“It was always quite obvious that he was going to go for the oil sector. It is a low-hanging fruit,” says Cheto. “The oil industry is an industry he understands. He knows exactly where money should be going and how the allocation should be.”

“If they can tackle a major corruption case, it gives them the credibility boost that they need to make bigger structural changes that they need going forward,” she adds. “They need to win public support first of all, they need people to believe from the onset that they are a credible government and that they mean business. It’s clearly a strategy designed to give them a bit of breathing room.”

Last month, Buhari sealed a historic election victory, defeating outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan in what is the country's first ever democratic change of power to an opposition party. A Reuters tally confirmed that his APC party secured 15.4 million votes to People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Jonathan’s 13.3 million in the country’s 36 states.

Before this win, Buhari, 72, had failed on three occasions (2003, 2007 and 2011) in his bid to return as Nigerian president since the country moved from a series of military rulers to a democratic system in 1999. He survived a Boko Haram assassination attempt last July when a suicide bomber aligned to the radical Islamist group targeted his car in the northern city of Kaduna.


Newsweek


Related story: Nigeria's $20 billion oil leak

Hundreds of decomposing bodies found in Damasak, Nigeria

Reports of decomposing bodies littering the streets of Damasak came as president Muhammadu Buhari denounced the Islamists as a bogus religious group and vowed a hard line against them when he comes to power at the end of next month.

North-east Nigeria has been relentlessly targeted throughout the jihadists' six-year uprising but there had been a lull in violence in recent weeks.

A coalition of troops from Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria has claimed major victories since February, reportedly flushing the militants out of areas they previously controlled.

The discovery of hundreds of bodies, including women and children, and the latest attacks underlined both the brutality of the conflict and the continuing threat posed by the extremists.

The grim find in Damasak “far outnumbered” that of about 100 bodies found in a mass grave under a bridge after the town was liberated in early March by Chadian forces, said local resident Kaumi Kusur.

“Dead bodies were found in houses, streets and many more in the Damasak River which has dried up,” he said, adding the victims were buried in 20 mass graves at the weekend.

Mohammed Sadiq, another local who helped in the burials on Saturday, put the death toll at more than 400 but the Borno state government did not state a precise figure, giving a toll of “hundreds”.

The victims had been covered by sand from the encroaching desert, with the burial ordered by the state authorities, which are looking at the return of thousands of people displaced by the violence.

Buhari, who takes office on May 29, was elected last month on a pledge of a tougher approach to Boko Haram than the current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The former military ruler said in a statement issued by his All Progressives Congress party: “No religion allows for the killing of children in school dormitories, in markets and places of worship.

“They have nothing to do with religion. They are terrorists and we are going to deal with them as we deal with terrorists.”

Buhari was speaking after Boko Haram fighters stormed the island of Karamga on Lake Chad in motorised canoes before sunrise on Saturday.

Troops from Niger stationed on the island “were caught off guard” and suffered heavy losses, said Umar Yerima, a fisherman who witnessed the raid but escaped by hiding in long grass near the shore.

Niger's military confirmed the attack but did not provide a death toll. A security source in Chad said Niger lost 48 soldiers and another 36 were missing.

Another source, an official from southeastern Niger's Diffa region, said the toll was much higher at 80 dead and some 30 missing.

Yerima told AFP the Islamic State group-allied militants “turned their guns” onto civilians after overpowering the troops, firing at people who had jumped into the water to avoid detection.

Some residents were also burnt alive in their homes, he added.

On Friday, suspected Boko Haram fighters disguised as soldiers intercepted a group of people trying to return to their homes to collect abandoned food supplies in northeastern Yobe state.

“The men, 21 of them, were stopped at Bultaram (village) by gunmen we believe are Boko Haram who shot them dead,” said Baba Nuhu, an official with the Gujba local government.

Like many Gujba residents, Nuhu and Haruna Maram, the brother of one of the victims, have sought refuge from the violence in Yobe's capital Damaturu.

“My brother and 20 others wanted to bring back their grains to augment their lean food supplies,” Maram said. “Unfortunately, they were killed by (the) same Boko Haram we ran away from.”

Gujba is one of a handful of districts in Yobe that Boko Haram captured during its sweeping offensive from mid-2014.

It was also the scene of a gruesome massacre at an agricultural college in 2013 that targeted students sleeping their dormitories.

Community leaders have warned civilians are still at risk, especially those returning to remote areas like Gujba where the military's deployment has typically been thin.

Many experts agree that Boko Haram is likely to transition from capturing and holding territory to reverting to a pattern of hit-and-run attacks.

Analysts say boastings from regional armies should be treated with caution, as the Islamists are far from defeated and can easily regroup, especially if there is a let-up in the military pressure.

AFP

Nigeria recalls diplomats from South Africa over xenophobic attacks

Nigeria’s ambassador in Pretoria, and the consul general in Johannesburg, will return to Nigeria for consultations.

A Nigerian government statement noted that some South Africans had organised peace marches and that President Jacob Zuma had condemned the attacks.

Nigerian legislators have called for the South African government to pay damages and a Nigerian rights group has complained to the International Criminal Court.

The South African government, calling the Nigerian government’s action “an unfortunate and regrettable step”, said it and a wide range of civic organisations had been “decisive and unequivocal in condemning and rejecting the attacks on foreign nationals”.

Al Jazeera reported that the statement by South Africa’s Department of International Cooperation and Cooperation went on to deride the Nigerian government over its inability to rein in the Boko Haram insurgency in the north of its country.

It also pointed out that South Africa did not blame the Nigerian government for mishandling the aftermath of the collapse of a church building last year, which left 84 South Africans dead.

AP

Related story: South Africa closes consulate in Lagos, Nigeria after anti-xenophobia protests

Nigeria summons South African ambassador over xenophobic attacks

Nigeria's foreign ministry has summoned South Africa's high commissioner over anti-immigrant violence in which at least seven people have been killed, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

South Africa deployed soldiers on Tuesday to try to quell the unrest after being criticized by governments including China and Zimbabwe for failing to protect foreigners from armed mobs.

"The essence of the summon was to register Nigeria's protest over the on-going xenophobic attacks against fellow Africans in South Africa," the ministry said, adding that the meeting had happened on Monday.

It also called on the South African authorities to quell the unrest and bring those involved to book.

On Tuesday, four men aged between 18 and 22 were charged with the murder and robbery of a Mozambican man, Emmanuel Sithole, whose death was captured by a newspaper photographer and plastered across the front pages, shocking the nation.

Isolated counter-protests involving a few dozen people have occurred in Nigeria, an economy in which South African firms such as mobile phone giant MTN and supermarket chain Shoprite have large stakes.

Diplomats from several African countries have urged their citizens back home not to seek vengeance.

"We are appealing to our countries not to retaliate," Democratic Republic of the Congo ambassador Bene M'Poko told a news conference in Johannesburg, stressing that South African firms in the rest of the continent were "working peacefully".


Reuters