WHY GHANA IS FAR BEHIND IN THE RACE TO ADOPT CRYPTOCURRENCIES AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY.
In a country where seeking for financial freedom is seen as a rebellion against authorities and superiors in high places, the citizenry tend to coil in their shell and say to themselves, financial freedom is a total fallacy and those who wish to find it are living in a fools paradise.
In this article, I will outline five reasons Ghana 
is far behind in the race to adopt cryptocurrencies and the lack of interest in the blockchain technology as a whole.
Firstly; during the height of the 2017 bull run, scammers saw it as a means to dupe uninformed investors of which I was a victim.
I was called one afternoon by a colleague who thought he has seen the ultimate way to help himself and some few friends of his to financial freedom. He introduced a project called “bitclub advantage”.
With this project, all we had to do was to buy a package (bronze, silver, Gold, platinum etc…) each package had its daily return on investment.
What a way to be finally financially free, we said to ourselves.
But our joy will soon be shattered.
It was paying well in the beginning but later things became messy.
The website of the project got frozen with an inscription “site under maintenance”!!!
For almost 5 years now, it is still under maintenance.
We lost close to $40,000 in that scam project. I vowed never to do anything related to crypto again and so did my friends. The scam killed our interest.
Secondly; In a country with a population of 32 million people, I can say that only 1% has an idea of what blockchain technology is all about. This is due to insufficient education. Our television, radio and information networks are bombarded with 99% political arguments which has no positive impact on the general wellbeing of the citizenry.
They know when they educate you to be financially free, you wouldn’t have time for their brouhaha, hence these networks try as much as possible to suppress any information about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as a whole.
Moreover, investors are being scared away by Authorities.
On the 13th of April, 2021, an official letter was released from the office of Security and Exchange Commission of Ghana given a strong warning to the 1% who have decided to invest in cryptocurrencies.
Mr. Paul Ababio, Deputy Director-General of Securities and Exchange Commission stated clearly and I quote “the commission has given out a warning that (cryptocurrency) is not registered by the commission, Bank of Ghana does not treat it as a form of payment, it is not a legal tender but we will be engaging further to come out with frameworks,so people should desist from participating” this news circulated rapidly like wildfire in harmattan.
People who lacked information about the crypto-space became worried. Their interest was shattered.
Furthermore, what people seem to not understand is that no investment in the world is 100% risk free.
Fear of losing one’s capital has always been the key problem of every investor. All what investors look for is a place where they are sure their invested amount is safe.
In Ghana, the daily minimum wage is less than $2.
The loss of this hard earned money can dealt a severe blow to one’s finances. Citizens tend to spend their money to feed themselves, rather than save it, because the bank is not an option here.
Finally, to be able to enjoy the world of cryptocurrencies, one need to have access to compatible devices.
People find it hard to feed themselves three square meals daily, the taught of getting these devices to start with drives most of them away. But as it is said, if there is no pain, there is wouldn’t be any gain.
Conclusion, the outlined reasons above are the main reason why my country Ghana is far behind in the race to adopt cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology as a whole.
But as the saying goes “a journey of thousand miles begins with a step” with time we will get there.
We will stay positive and focused on what lies ahead.
