The Nigerian government has been accused of trying to subvert the ongoing protests against Police brutality tagged #EndSars by influencing banks to shut out inflows in support of the protests. This came after fintech companies became pivotal in fundraising for the #EndSARS protests. The protesters with the help of fintech firms set up two payment links, one set up by Flutterwave and another by a social advocacy platform called Feminist Coalition have been the two most prominent crowdfunding links since the protests started on October 7.
However the group first reported that its payment link was under maintenance when they noticed a downtime, then they later announced that Flutterwave, the company at the centre of the fundraising was invited by the Central Bank of Nigeria over the handling of the funds. Many were of the opinion that government officials were embarrassed at the rate the protests were being sustained leading to investigations into how the funds were being raised. When the Flutterwave link got threatened by the shutting down of the bank account said to be domiciled at a new bank, the protesters resorted to cryptocurrency which led to the raising of over ₦25 million ($65,000) the Feminist Coalition donation link. The funds are going towards everything from refreshments to legal fees, medical bills and towards the welfare of family members of victims of the protests.
To avert efforts by government to checkmate funds donations, the Feminist Coalition has made alternative bank and cryptocurrency accounts available for those who want to explore that route, ideal because of the digitised nature of the currency and the inability of the government to shut it down but questionable in the speed with which it can be converted to liquid local currency cash to meet protesters needs on ground.
Bundle Africa, another cryptocurrency platform has been raising BTC funds for the protests since Saturday, October 10. Although they initially intended to put these into the now shut down Flutterwave donation boxes, their channel will become quite central in the interim. Cryptocurrencies always have been the next best option since the tweet alerting the Twitterverse of the deactivation of these two major crowdfunding links.
But its predominant use case on the continent so far has been trading and investments rather than everyday exchange of value in spite of their popularity. Just two months ago, Nigeria was at the top of the Sub Saharan Africa peer to peer bitcoin trading volumes totaling an equivalent of $9.8 million. Sub Saharan Africa’s trading volumes came in second highest with $18.3 million worth of bitcoin traded during this period. However, if the situation persists, it presents an opportunity for more fintech companies particularly those playing in the cryptocurrency exchange fields to be what Flutterwave has been in the last six days to the protest.
If Feminist Coalition plugs its BTC address in Send cash’s system for instance, any cryptocurrencies donated can be immediately sold for naira and then deposited in a temporary naira bank account via Paystack where the funds can continue to be disbursed seamlessly as is needed pending the outcome of the Flutterwave impasse with the Central Bank.