Key takeaways:
- Roqqu, a Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange, has been given permission to operate in South Africa.
- The company also got a virtual currency license for the European Economic Area.
South African regulators have permitted Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Roqqu to operate there, enabling customers to buy cryptocurrencies and withdraw in Rand, the nation’s fiat currency.
Roqqu has made South Africa a primary goal to increase its market domination in Africa. The business identified South Africa as a key market for its expansion goals, which call for reaching 5 million customers by 2023. In addition, Roqqu plans to expand regionally soon, focusing on Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
As of January, Roqqu claimed to have more than 1.4 million active users. At the same time, the company also got a virtual currency license for the European Economic Area, thus allowing it to conduct business in more than 30 nations. However, the regulatory agencies in the area took two years to grant the exchange approval.
The exchange’s primary goal is to make it possible for people to transact in cryptocurrencies across borders, especially in countries in Africa. Africans who live and work overseas contribute more than $5 billion to home annually, said Benjamin Onomor, CEO of Roqqu. They do so under a great deal of stress and often have to wait days for the money to reach their relatives in Africa. He went on:
“This is an issue as many families depend on this remittance for critical needs such as food and shelter.”
He also added that the expansion to other African nations in that region would be made even simpler from South Africa. With all of this in mind, the Roqqu team decided to go towards this expansion and is currently making “BIG MOVES” as the first crypto exchange with a Nigerian base, encouraging the adoption of crypto in other African nations.
Roqqu stands to attract a sizable number of followers while also providing their current supporters with new options, so it’s easy to conclude that they are the only ones to benefit from this move.
According to data from Chainalysis, the Middle East and North Africa is the region with the fastest-growing adoption of cryptocurrencies, with over $566 billion in cryptocurrencies traded between July 2021 and June 2022, a growth of 48% from the previous year.
