The West African nation of Ghana has recently emerged as one of the most crypto-friendly nations in recent years. This newfound prominence has been attributed to a rising number of use cases that show more and more Ghanaians prefer to transfer money using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, thanks to the absence of high transaction fees one would normally find at traditional money transfer services.
This is why we are elated to announce we are working alongside Dai stablecoin builder Maker Foundation in building a Dai-Agent Network (DAN) in the country. This network will comprise merchants that can accept payments in Dai quickly, easily, and securely for all sorts of goods and services. Merchants in this program will be onboarded onto Pundi X’s merchant list, which enables them to set up an XPOS device that can accept, sell and/or buy Dai directly from their customers. The network will also include Dai exchange agents, who are entrepreneurs that are willing to make income buying and selling Dai, offering an easy way for ordinary Ghanians to start using the coin.
“Setting up a DAN in a country like Ghana is undoubtedly a win for further financial inclusion,” says Sahabia Yakubu, Ghana based MakerDAO African Ambassador. “There are some things traditional financial systems can’t do, so we’re glad to be able to work with Pundi X and give Dai a chance to show the numerous gaps in the market that it can fill.”
Aside from issues with traditional remittance services, Yakubu refers to difficulties within the Ghanian banking system. The country faces persistent inflation, as well as the fact that a lot of their population remains unbanked/underbanked. Furthermore, there is still no local exchange service in Ghana that offers a straight exchange between Dai and fiat currency. All of these are issues that Pundi X can be instrumental in resolving.
Of course, there are also many benefits to Pundi X as well. The pilot phase of the network activation seeks to enlist 20 active merchants, all of which will show the handiness of XPOS devices. Increased Dai usage will also open up the potential for increased downloads of XWallet and XPASS, supplementary apps that can assist transactions. F
inally, the project will also position both Maker Foundation and Pundi X as key players in the local economy and as a dependable way to verify transactions.
“Ghana and the whole of the African continent are in a prime position to use cryptocurrency, especially for global remittance use cases supporting more favorable fees and protection against currency devaluation” Pundi X Director of Global Business Development, Melcom Copeland concluded. “This project with Maker Foundation is taking a page out of a book of the already established Agent Banking Network model across Africa, and modernizing it with a more efficient and cost-effective cashless POS and stablecoin solution.”
About Maker Foundation
MakerDAO is a decentralized organization dedicated to bringing financial stability and transparency to the world economy. Its purpose is to create an inclusive platform for economic empowerment and unlock access to the global financial marketplace for all.
MakerDAO enables the generation of Dai, the world’s first unbiased currency and leading decentralized stablecoin. Dai mitigates volatility through an autonomous system of smart contracts called the Maker Protocol, as well as through decentralized community governance.
For more information, please visit https://makerdao.com/en/.
Originally Announced by Pundi X (Writers): https://medium.com/pundix/maker-foundation-and-pundi-x-is-set-to-unveil-dai-agent-network-in-ghana-8b27273093b1