African banking systems are mostly accessed by phone, and ripe for disruption.
Forex trading became a massive industry due to the volatility of international currencies. One day the price for the Venezuela Petro can be up, the next day down. And the reverse. In between the foreign exchange volatility (forex volatility) there is a space to earn. That’s why historically people banked up American dollars or hid Swiss franks in their basements. If the Yen tanked, then well having American money is almost as good as gold, as the theory goes.
Now Forex has seen some harsh criticisms in the recent years mainly because of the lack of control in the industry. It happens, like the gaming industry, that certain fly-by-night companies pop up promising the every-day person get rich quick schemes so they can retire from the factory job. Most of the time these promises don’t pan out and the person loses all of the money that they thought was going into foreign currency.
Some other ideas if foreign currency investment is something you are interested in is putting your money in a banking system of a slightly volatile country, because if you do your research you will see that some of the banks offer very attractive interest rates (from 5 to 10%) that you simply cannot get at American banks. We wouldn’t suggest you do this without a trusted friend or advisor who has experience in this area.
Other areas of interest in risk currencies can also be found in the crypto currency space. Bitcoin has exploded, then receded, then leveled out. Early buyers in this international currency with no home country now find themselves with a nice next egg, and for very little work. The boom of Bitcoin is probably over, but there are new currencies or blockchain currencies you can buy today which also put a social good message ahead of their get-rich quick promise. If you don’t get rick quick at least you can know you have supported something with an eco or impact vision.
Some of these companies include flux, a company developing a grow robot called Eddy to help people grow food in emerging economies.
Agriledger for creating a blockchain-based network of farmers and suppliers to give co-ops and small producers immediate access to accurate information about market costs transaction agreements to ward off corruption.
Bloom is uses blockchain ledgers to create stable IDs for each user, which can then be used to report on existing debt arrangements and provide an alternative credit score for individuals who might have bad credit.
Alice supports crowd-funded philanthropy, where individuals like us can give small amounts online to social projects. Alice ensures that a project receiving funds is spending the funds ethically.
