Famous artist Akon to push forward the utility of his Akoin by partnering with BitMinutes

A famous producer and Grammy-award winner, Akon, made quite a few headlines when he announced his own cryptocurrency, Akoin. Now, he is making moves to push forward the utility of his coin, by partnering up with BitMinutes, with goals of bringing financial inclusion to Africa, and then the whole world.

Akon launched his cryptocurrency only last week, basing it on the Stellar network. He chose Stellar due to the fact that his vision of creating a world-wide financial inclusion is the same as that of the Stellar project. As explained by the project’s President and co-founder, Jon Karas, the project will focus on areas such as Africa.

This is very important to the Akoin team, which understood from the start that millions in Africa struggle to survive with only the traditional fiat currency model at their disposal.

How will the partnership help African citizens?

Nigeria is one of the most struggling regions, as almost 35% of its population remains unbanked to date. As such, its people are unable to save money or even borrow it from a trusted source. Due to these challenges, most Africans have been relying on prepaid mobile phone minutes which they use as currency.

Now, the new partnership between Akoin and BitMinutes aims to resolve the issue by offering a more familiar financial model. Akoin’s COO Lynn Liss stated that the relationship with BitMinutes will provide the cornerstone for how the projects will achieve their shared vision. They will use prepaid minutes as a medium of exchange, thus giving the people of Africa a familiar system, that they will recognize and understand. At the same time, this will be the first step in bringing more of them into a blockchain-based economy.

As for BitMinutes, it will allow Akoin holders free money transfer for 1.2 billion accounts across the continent. In addition, they will also get mobile top-up, also for free, for four billion phones. Finally, the company will allow access to prepaid airtime capabilities, cash in/out services, and micro-lending. BitMinutes’ CEO, Tom Meredith, confirmed this and said that the company’s application is not only very practical but intuitive for these regions.