A year apart, two writers described the same hard truth about Bitcoin adoption in Africa: visibility isn't impact. Anita, "Copycats and Builders: Bitcoin Adoption in Africa And What Must Change" (July 2025): @Anita points to over150 Bitcoin education and adoption initiatives across the continent, many of which look impressive online, graduation photos, workshop certificates, onboarded merchants, but rarely translate into real impact. She calls this "adoption theatre." She also flags a copy-paste mentality, where initiatives replicate what worked elsewhere hoping it attracts foreign funding. Farida Nabourema, "The African Bitcoin Ecosystem Has a Credibility Crisis" (July 2026) Farida argues that staying silent to protect a "young ecosystem" has itself become a form of complicity. She calls for the same standards Bitcoin would be held to anywhere: real transparency, real accountability, real measurement, real impact. She describes a more sophisticated form of exploitation emerging, one that uses community poverty as fundraising capital while distributing only symbolic amounts of Bitcoin, replacing measurable outcomes with curated stories and accountability with branding. Read both: 1.

Bitcoin Magazine

Copycats And Builders: Bitcoin Adoption In Africa And What Must Change

Africa: Despite 150+ Bitcoin adoption and education initiatives across the continent, much of the activity only looks impressive but doesn’t lead...

2. https://medium.com/@faridabemba/the-african-bitcoin-ecosystem-has-a-credibility-crisis-7803cbd88438

How are African governments weaponising financial infrastructure against civil society? The Africa Financial Tyranny Index (AFTI), a work in progress by HakiFedha, tracks these exact tactics. (Note: Index is young/not exhaustive). Learn more:

HakiFedha | Financial Justice & Privacy

Africa Financial Tyranny Index (AFTI)

Tracking how African governments use financial infrastructure to silence civil society.

When an NGO treasurer in Nairobi is setting up a multisignature wallet for the first time, they need someone to walk through it with them. When a journalist in Lagos is about to receive their first Bitcoin payment, they need a trusted voice, not just a link. When an activist organisation in Dakar wants to present Bitcoin to its board but is not sure how to answer difficult questions, they need someone who has done it before. When a human rights organisation in Kampala receives an international donation in Bitcoin and needs help creating internal policies for custody, accounting, and transparency, they need practical guidance. When a women’s rights group in Harare wants to understand whether Bitcoin is appropriate for their organisation before accepting donations, they need an impartial advisor who can explain both the opportunities and the risks. When an independent media outlet in Addis Ababa loses access to traditional payment channels and needs to explore alternative funding options, they need someone who understands both Bitcoin and the realities of civil society. When a whistleblower support organisation in Mozambique wants to protect the financial privacy of donors and beneficiaries, they need help evaluating the available tools and trade-offs. BitMentor is that person. Become one:

HakiFedha | Financial Justice & Privacy

BitMentor

BitMentor is a volunteer network of experienced Bitcoiners who provide free one-to-one guidance to civil society actors across Africa. Our mentors ...

What if the NGOs in Burkina Faso forced into state-owned banks had used Bitcoin self-custody? If they held even a fraction of their reserves outside the state banking system, the outcome would look very different. We built a free knowledge hub to ensure African civil society is equipped with this knowledge before the next directive drops:

Burkina Faso Orders All NGOs to Bank with the State, Tightening Control - Ecofin Agency

Burkina Faso orders NGOs to use state-run bank for all funds Move follows arrests, aims to tighten oversight of foreign NGOs Burkina Faso

@Bitcoin Policy UK @npub1trr5...hdpu @npub17xvf...c9as

As we build the Africa Financial Tyranny Index (AFTI), we completely agree with the sentiment: "You can never fully understand #bitcoin when you never got unbanked." Spoken truly by @BankSith Our documented index is young and not exhaustive, but the work has begun:

HakiFedha | Financial Justice & Privacy

Africa Financial Tyranny Index (AFTI)

Tracking how African governments use financial infrastructure to silence civil society.

@Anita

The Burkina Faso playbook is not new. Financial repression is a tool of political control across Africa:

Burkina Faso Orders All NGOs to Bank with the State, Tightening Control - Ecofin Agency

Burkina Faso orders NGOs to use state-run bank for all funds Move follows arrests, aims to tighten oversight of foreign NGOs Burkina Faso

This is why HakiFedha is here: Financial justice starts with knowing your options.

Fiat Currency Hall of Fame: The largest banknote ever printed: The Zimbabwe 100 Trillion Dollar note ($100,000,000,000,000). Issued in January 2009 at the peak of hyperinflation, this massive denomination was worth just about $30 USD at launch. Barely enough to buy a single loaf of bread. Money printing is a ghost story told in real time.

In 2025, Burkina Faso ordered every NGO to transfer all funds to a state bank. What if those NGOs had understood Bitcoin before the decree? This is why we built HakiFedha. HakiFedha is a free, multilingual, open-source knowledge hub for activists, journalists, whistleblowers, community organisers, and human rights defenders in Africa. Bitcoin. Privacy. Financial sovereignty. In plain language, for your context:

HakiFedha | Financial Justice & Privacy

Be Your Own Bank: What Burkina Faso Tells Us About Bitcoin & Civil Society in Africa

By HakiFedha team In October 2025, the transitional government of Burkina Faso issued an instruction that should have alarmed civil society organis...