Nigerian financial company, Blockstale BTM has installed Nigeria’s first Bitcoin Automated Teller Machine- ATM in the financial capital of the country, Lagos state. The machine was installed at Dazey Lounge and Bar in the Ajah area of Lagos.

According to Africanews.com, on April 1st, 2020, Daniel Adekunle, Blockstale’s Chief executive and founder said “Despite all the legal uncertainties about cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, Nigerians happen to be the highest crypto traders in Africa.”

Although the laws and policies on cryptocurrency are yet to be structured and fully outlined by the Nigerian government and leading financial institutions, there is evident growth, use and even investment in bitcoins across the country.

According to Google trends, Nigeria has consistently topped Google searches for ‘Bitcoin’ by generating nearly twice the traffic as the second-ranked country, Austria. Over time, investors may be more eager to capitalize on it.

Also, the Nigerian currency (Naira) is highly vulnerable to fluctuation when considering exchange rates, and devaluation by its apex bank. Thus,this makes the average person less secure about the future value of the currency. Recent events have also led to a dependency on other currencies (mostly, the United States Dollar and British Pounds) to safeguard the value of money. With more financial structures like the ATM, Bitcoin may be able to create a niche for itself as an alternative currency.

Following the launch of this Bitcoin ATM in Nigeria, the African continent now has 15 recorded bitcoin terminals, the other 14 are spread across South Africa (7) Ghana (2)  Kenya (1) Botswana (1), Zimbabwe (1), Djibouti (1), and Uganda (1).

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a decentralized digital currency that functions, without a central bank or a single administrator that can be transferred from one user to user leveraging on the peer to peer bitcoin network system without a need for intermediaries.