Duniapay, a digital banking platform created by three students from Burkina Faso, has added a personal savings feature to its banking application that already provides residents from some 14 West African countries with a flexible digital platform to access financial services.
Using a Stablecoin to Save
The new feature, which is viewed as another demonstration of the game-changing potential of blockchain technology, comes with an offer of over 8% annual interest on savings. This interest rate offer according to Duniapay surpasses the typical 3.5% interest that is offered by most traditional banks.
A statement released by Duniapay reveals that this new feature became possible following the creation of the cxof stablecoin which was “developed by Duniapay on Celo’s decentralized finance ecosystem.” It is this stablecoin — which tracks the region’s CFA franc (XOF) — that enables residents of these countries “to easily save money and to earn interest.”
As Radha Mathur of Duniapay explains, this interest rate feature is a step up from the firm’s initial mission of enabling “money transfers and conversions from crypto to fiat currencies for the people of West Africa.”
Currency Swapping
The statement also claims that the cxof stablecoin will allow residents to “transact globally by swapping natively between multiple stable currencies available on Celo [cEUR, cUSD and others].”
Duniapay’s introduction of a privately issued stablecoin to users in West Africa comes a few weeks after the regional parliament warned residents to be wary of the risks associated with cryptocurrencies. The parliament cited cryptocurrencies’ lack of a central authority to monitor transactions as well as the concentration of assets in just a few hands as some of the risk factors.
However, in its statement, Duniapay suggests that its operations are conducted “within a safe, secure, and regulated environment.” In addition, the cxof stablecoin users are able to freely trade this “on any Celo compatible wallets.”
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