When Tanzania shut down the web for 5 days throughout its October 29 election, Ndege Kereu’s mom was stranded with no money and no solution to attain her son, who was on the Kenyan facet. Each try Kereu made to ship her cash via M-PESA or cross-border remittance apps was both too costly or failed outright. The digital methods that help on the spot connectivity between households throughout borders had out of the blue gone silent.
“My mom bought caught within the protests,” Kereu instructed TechCabal. “She had not been paid and had no cash. After many calls, we lastly reached her when she landed on the Kenya-Tanzania border known as Isebania.”
For nearly one week, Tanzania’s web shutdown did greater than silence social media. It froze cellular wallets, halted cross-border funds, and crippled fintech platforms like NALA and Sensible, reminding everybody simply how fragile Africa’s digital finance revolution stays.
Kereu finally discovered a workaround. He turned to Bitcoin.
“Fortunately, I had taught her find out how to save by way of Bitcoin,” he mentioned. “She had some funds by way of Pockets of Satoshi, and we, too, had one thing saved. We have been in a position to ship her by way of Tando and paid the blokes who helped her transfer safely [across the border].”
Tando, a Kenyan app that converts Bitcoin into cellular cash via M-PESA, turned the household’s bridge. It was an improvised repair for an issue that almost all fintech founders are reluctant to debate: what occurs when the web disappears.
Whereas cellular cash in Tanzania didn’t utterly shut down—with primary companies like SMS and USSD nonetheless working—calls, nonetheless, have been down for many of the interval. But, for cross-border transfers and bigger remittances to Tanzania, M-PESA proved too costly and sluggish. That’s why Kereu leaned on Bitcoin.
“We turned to Bitcoin primarily to chop prices,” mentioned Kereu. “Transferring 10,000 [Kenyan] shillings via M-PESA can value as much as 20 bob, whereas Lightning Bitcoin transactions are a fraction of that.”
The Tanzanian outage wasn’t the primary of its form, however it was among the many most economically disruptive. For hours, fintech platforms that deal with thousands and thousands of {dollars} in each day remittances have been paralysed. NALA, a remittance startup used throughout East Africa and the UK, went darkish for 18 hours. For purchasers, it meant no cash for necessities. For fintechs, it meant confronting the boundaries of their very own success story.
Benjamin Fernandes, NALA’s CEO, summed up the frustration in a submit on X.
“In Africa, it’s not simply tweets that cease,” he mentioned. “It’s cellular cash, deliveries, jobs, hospitals, startups, tech, and livelihoods. Shutting down the web throughout elections doesn’t silence folks—it frustrates them much more.”
Cell cash and remittance platforms have thrived as a result of web entry has expanded throughout the continent, permitting folks to maneuver funds immediately between cities and international locations. However few methods are designed to operate when that entry collapses.
The blackout forces a broader reflection. Can fintechs really construct methods resilient sufficient to outlive a political shutdown, or should they settle for that constructing in Africa will all the time be political?
“It’s a query price asking as a result of the political scene right here in Africa could be very unpredictable,” mentioned a fintech business operator who requested anonymity to talk freely. “However the world revolves across the web, sadly.”
But just a few startups are experimenting with constructing for a situation like Tanzania’s. Machankura, a South Africa-based startup, permits customers to ship and obtain Bitcoin via SMS and USSD codes, enabling cross-border funds with out web, via characteristic telephones. The service works in ten international locations, together with Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria, and Kenya. For folks dwelling in areas liable to shutdowns or poor connectivity, it provides a solution to hold transactions going via easy dial codes.
Machankura’s answer, whereas modern, nonetheless has one essential ultimate lap oversight: folks can’t spend their Bitcoins with out the web. This hole creates a irritating lifeless finish for recipients who’ve been locked out of different crypto remittance platforms which are too complicated to make use of.
“The large downside comes if you need to spend,” Kereu mentioned. “You want the web. The web in Tanzania was closed. I texted her [my mum] however bought no replies.”
When Kereu lastly reached his mom on the Isebania border, he inspired her to attempt Yellow Card, a stablecoin funds app that operates throughout a number of African international locations, hoping it might be simpler to make use of. However the lack of accessibility uncovered one other downside.
“It’s good for tech-savvy folks, however outdated folks need easy stuff. Pockets of Satoshi has a direct ship and obtain, so once I requested her to ship what she had, we transformed it to shillings. She solely wanted my LNURL,” mentioned Kereu, referring to a Lightning tackle that works like an electronic mail hyperlink for immediate Bitcoin funds.
The usability hole is the place new alternatives are rising. Some fintechs and crypto startups are transferring away from app-first design and leaning on community-led, agent-driven networks. For instance, Accrue has constructed peer-to-peer (P2P) methods the place vetted brokers onboard customers and assist them convert between fiat and stablecoins offline. It mirrors the cellular cash mannequin that took root in East Africa 20 years in the past, bringing a human layer to digital finance.
However even these fashions depend upon the broader ecosystem. Brokers want connectivity to settle balances. Customers want energy to cost their telephones. When both fails, the community stalls. The fintech business operator warned that even seemingly offline methods should not solely immune.
“There’s nothing a authorities can’t do,” mentioned the fintech operator. “For SMS, the cellular community supplier can view all messages that move via. Except a separate, encrypted messaging protocol is created, it stays unreliable. Governments can simply as simply order suppliers to close SMS companies down, too.”
He additionally pointed to the necessity for builders to suppose past present infrastructure and discover other ways to entry the web.
“From the newer smartphones, like iPhone 14 and above, there’s already a satellite tv for pc web characteristic that permits folks to ship small information packets even when there isn’t a protection,” he defined. “Finally, different cellphone makers will comply with.”
The know-how remains to be early, however it hints at a potential path ahead. For fintechs working in politically unstable areas, satellite tv for pc connections may provide a layer of resilience the place conventional networks fall quick.
Nevertheless, this but results in one other conundrum. Most of those new capabilities are locked inside costly smartphones that many Africans can’t afford. In a continent the place characteristic telephones nonetheless dominate, constructing options that depend upon high-end gadgets dangers widening the very hole these improvements are supposed to shut.
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