Many central banks on the continent have warned against trading cryptocurrency, while some have made it outright illegal. The Central African Republic is the only African nation to have adopted the digital assets.

“Cryptocurrency can as well complement the mobile money wallet, but essentially, we need to talk to the regulators.”

In Kenya, mobile money transactions -- which were only made possible through the willingness of the regulator to try out new technology -- have surpassed the use of hard currency. In the same way, the use of new technology can help increase Africa’s competitiveness because the continent lacks legacy systems.