How Africans Are Using Bitcoin Without Internet Access

Machankura enables users that do not have smartphones to send and receive bitcoin.

South African software developer Kgothatso Ngako built a tool, Machankura, for accessing bitcoin despite the continent’s mobile internet connectivity challenge.
Machankura enables users that do not have smartphones to send and receive bitcoin. Users only need a basic mobile phone that can send and receive text messages.
As of 2021, 54% of mobile phone users in Africa do not have a smartphone.
It works through an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data interface, utilizing mobile phones’ Subscriber Identity Module telecommunication network.
Machankura is already being used by roughly 2,900 African users across more than seven countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Namibia.

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