Determined to provide more seamless, cheaper, faster, efficient payment solutions to Nigerians, ConsenSys, a market-leading Web3 company, has partnered MoonPay, the leading web3 infrastructure company to expand MetaMask transaction offering in Nigeria.
This partnership will offer users of MetaMask in Nigeria an opportunity to carry out instant bank transfers to purchase crypto directly within the MetaMask mobile app and the Portfolio Dapp.
Lorenzo Santos, Senior Product Manager at MetaMask said new inroad into Nigeria is aimed at reducing friction and bringing down barriers to keep supporting Nigerians as they onboard into web3.
According to Santos, this is an essential next step in a critical market that has embraced crypto and web3 but faces serious challenges when using fiat to crypto on-ramp.
He observed that buying and selling crypto in Nigeria can be challenging, with an estimated 90 percent of attempts to buy crypto using a credit/debit card declining.
“More localised payment methods, such as instant bank transfers, will improve the situation, enabling Nigerian users to access web3 more efficiently and obtain tokens conveniently without setting up an account with a centralized crypto exchange. This will reduce decline rates and provide a user-friendly experience” he said.
Zeeshan Feroz, Chief Product & Strategy Officer of MoonPay, said the partnership with MetaMask will enable the company to provide Nigerian users with Bank Transfers, a widely used payment method across Nigerian e-commerce businesses.
“We hope this integration opens the doors for Nigerians to fund their self-custody wallet through a simplified user experience,” Feroz said.
Commenting further Lorenzo Santos said the company is committed to providing seamless experiences for users in Africa, starting with Nigeria and expanding the rollout of this feature to Kenya, Botswana, and South Africa in the coming month.
Our collaboration with MoonPay is a step towards achieving this goal by providing users with a more convenient on-ramp experience in these countries.
He observes that the growing popularity of MetaMask in Nigeria is a testament to the increasing adoption of crypto in the country and the potential for further expansion of digital assets in Africa.
The Chainalysis 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index shows Nigeria has been climbing the charts regarding grassroots crypto adoption. Almost 12.4 million people, 5.7 percent of Nigeria’s population, are estimated to own crypto assets.
In addition, Nigeria is among MetaMask’s top markets globally, ranking third in mobile active users. It is also among the top ten countries regarding visitors to metamask.io.
“A widely accepted and real-time payment infrastructure obstacle for crypto transactions in Nigeria would boost the Nigerian crypto market. With this integration, the complexity of purchasing crypto, especially in Nigeria, is replaced with an easy solution. Furthermore, MetaMask users can become their own bank through self-custody, directly controlling their assets,” he said.
