A restaurant in Kenya called Betty’s Place has reportedly been accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for its food items such as the “nyama choma”, which is a special kind of goat meat barbeque.
According to BBC, Betty’s Place is one of the few private businesses in Kenya that accepts cryptocurrency payments. It is located in Nyeri, which is a small town approximately 150 kilometers (appr. 90 miles) away from the nation’s capital, Nairobi.
At present, the restaurant only accepts bitcoin (BTC) and Dash (DASH) payments. Beatrice Wambugu, the restaurant’s owner, said:
I attract different customers from different parts of the world, whichever coin they have. As long as it's a viable coin we accept it.
Trading Bitcoin Helps Earn Money For Opening Restaurant
Wambugu added:
Since the world is becoming more global, my place is also becoming a global restaurant.
She revealed that it has now been two years since Betty’s Place has been operational and trading bitcoin helped her earn enough money to purchase the two-storey hotel that has now been converted to a restaurant.
As described by BBC’s reporters, Betty’s place has “bright mustard-colored walls and big glass windows” that help create a pleasant dining experience for its customers. Although Betty’s Place may not be the only restaurant that serves gourmet Kenyan food, it is one of the very few local restaurants, and merchants, that are helping to promote more awareness about cryptocurrencies.
Commenting on her experience with digital currencies, Wambugu said she considers herself to be “a pioneer” of the new financial technology in Kenya. She also explained that cryptos are in the early stages of adoption, not only in the African republic but also worldwide.
Teaching Customers About Bitcoin
So far, Wambugu said she’s only received about 30,000 Kenyan shillings (appr. $300) in bitcoin from 20 customers. However, she appears to be confident that cryptocurrencies will be more widely used and accepted as a form of payment by more merchants.
To help her community members understand how to transact in digital currencies, Wambugu said: “I’ve set aside one day where I can teach my customers. Whoever asks about cryptocurrencies: ‘How does it work? What is Bitcoin?’ I train them.” She added that smartphones have helped many people in Africa as it’s now easier for them make payments by simply scanning QR codes.
While other types of financial technology such as PayPal and M-Pesa are more widely used to make payments from mobile phones, it’s possible that bitcoin or other cryptos could become just as popular in the next few years.
Opportunity To “Bank The Unbanked”
James Preston, the project lead at South Africa (SA) Crypto, told BBC that bitcoin potentially gives users an “opportunity to do what people are calling ‘banking the unbanked'” – as over 350 million Africans are currently unable to access modern banking services.
Preston added:
There's been such a history of poverty in Africa that so many rural communities are yet to be developed with normal banking infrastructure. Now all of a sudden they can get a Bitcoin wallet on their phone and in essence they can have a bank in their phone, and that's what cryptocurrencies and crypto assets do, they allow you to be your own bank.
