Electroneum to Launch Electricity Top-Ups Across Africa

Crypto payments network Electroneum takes aim at expanding to African countries with new electricity top-up feature.

The blockchain-based digital payment project, Electroneum, will be launching an in-app electricity top-up feature across four African countries — Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and The Gambia.

The electricity top-up feature will allow ETN app users to top-up their electricity meters directly from the app by paying in ETN tokens. 

The ETN mobile application previously added support for airtime and data top-ups across 140 countries worldwide.

While Electroneum is trying to expand its territory with its various projects and in-app features, many of its users don’t find the growth as exciting — mostly due to the depreciating price of ETN tokens.

One such user took to Reddit, calling the growth of the ETN app rather underwhelming in regards to the wide expansion of the company across so many countries. 

However, the company said that its 30 month long “Phase One” has been successful in terms of bringing and retaining new users on the app. According to a Cointelligence report, there are approximately 1 million active ETN app users.

Working on the ground level to bring wider adoption

With more than 2.4 million downloads of the ETN app, the company seems to be working on the ground level to reach more people in developing countries. Their collaboration with NGOs in these countries is a potential way of ensuring wider use of cryptocurrencies, mentions the Cointelligence report.

Adding to that, an Electroneum told Cointelegraph,

By working with NGOs on the ground in developing nations, we are achieving true adoption of a cryptocurrency. We are enabling people and allowing them to join the global digital economy for the very first time.

The company said its side project AnyTask, which is a P2P project marketplace, was also working on bringing more people from developing countries to be a part of the gig economy. According to stats received from Electroneum, there are currently more than 300,000 registered buyers and sellers on AnyTask with approximately 4,500 listed projects.

It is expected to break the barriers of geographical borders in the freelance industry while also helping freelancers earn more by charging lower fees. The official said:

More importantly, we want to ensure that the vast number of highly skilled unbanked people of the world have an opportunity to join the global freelance revolution.