I want to apologize for writing about an area of Bitcoin that I know little about. From what I have gathered so far Bitcoin miners are attracted to places that have constant but cheap electricity supply, favorable government policies, security, less pollution, and accessible quality infrastructures. Cheap and uninterrupted power supply increases the chances of making profit, friendly government policies and security determine the longevity of the business, clean and green environment reduces the effect of mining emissions and quality infrastructures make the miners and their families live good lives in a particular location. All African nations might not have these qualities but some possess them. I want to state a few reasons why miners should consider Africa.

Humanitarian Grounds: If Bitcoin miners focus only on profit taking, Africa might be the least continent to consider to locate your mining firm. But if your goal is to make a profit and also help to improve the standard of living of Africans, then it is the best location. Africa needs help because of so many negative factors. Like the case of Gridless a company that started a bitcoin mining project by tapping into 50 kilowatts (kW) clean, stranded and excess hydro energy in Malawi. This Bitcoin mine has brought economic empowerment and job opportunities and 1,600 households connected to this mine have constant power supply. Another company SustainSolar, Earth Wind and Power and INENSUS saw the opportunity to use what would have been otherwise wasted energy to support crypto mining and in the process generate electricity to process high-value agricultural crops such as vanilla and BEC in rural Uganda; and yield many socio-economic benefits for the surrounding farming community.

Friendly Government Policies: Only four African countries have absolutely banned Bitcoin operation in their jurisdiction which includes Morrocco , Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria. Some African nations don’t have any laws that prevent or approve mining activities. Many countries in Africa will be willing to welcome miners because they desperately need revenue from the tax.  So, mining activities will be welcomed in Africa as long as you pay your tax.

Relatively cheap electricity: African countries are among the nations that have cheap electricity costs. According to Statista a firm that analyses the power consumption of countries, out of 30 nations that have the cheapest power four African countries made the list which includes Rwanda (8th), Kenya (15th), South Africa (15th), and Nigeria (27th). Africa has a lot of sunlight to power solar, many rivers or water bodies for hydroelectric power, and several abandoned power projects that can be revamped.
 
Security: Africa has always been a continent characterized by wars and political conflicts. In some of these nations, there is a high rate of crime. But this narrative is changing because many African nations are become politically stated and security friendly. African nations might not be among the first twenty safest countries but their rating has consistently improved Mauritius is the 28th safest country in the world, Ghana is the 40th, Gambia 45th and Botswanan 48th.

Infrastructures: Some African nations are investing heavily in infrastructural development. An example is Seychelles , a tropical island in the East of Africa which 100% of the population has access to electricity while 98% has unhindered access to drinking water. The country has 247 internet service providers and with the lowest population in Africa, the country still has 14 airports spread across its many cities. It has good roads, a quality health system, and well-planned cities. Other countries like Mauritius , Ghana, South Africa and São Tomé and Príncipe all have basic facilities that will be of great interest to bitcoin miners.

Friendly people: 80% of Western experts and local business leaders interviewed by How we made it in Africa confirmed that the best thing about the African country in which they operate is the people, along with its geographical beauty. According to the InterNations report, East African country received the highest marks for friendliness. More than 57% of experts in Uganda gave ‘general friendliness’ the best possible rating (the global average was 26%) and not a single respondent ranked this factor negatively. African love foreigners and treat them with love and respect. It will not be bad for some interested bitcoin miners to marry Africans because they are wonderful people.

As I said before, Africa might not be a perfect place to mine bitcoin but it could be a place to consider because things are changing for the better and we also need the support of bitcoin miners.

This would be more enticing if Africa offers the cheapest electricity but placing in 8th 15th and 27th is somehow way more expensive than mining on the ranked 1st to 7th.  In terms of government regulation, it is not an assurance that a country will be friendly if they don't have any law about crypto mining activities.  Anytime this country can turn hostile if its leader somehow thinks that crypto miners are depleting their natural resources.  If that time comes then a company that took advantage of the unregulated stance of many countries of Africa may have suffered huge losses.

Some of the African places today may be good as an alternative places for crypto mining but their unregulated stance is worrisome, especially in these three stated locations where the electricity is cheapest in that region. 

According to the information on the internet Rwanda (the one that is ranked 8th in cheap electricity) deemed cryptocurrency as illegal[1]
Kenya's stance on cryptocurrency is somehow vague,. They do not have any regulatory law but somehow propose a bill to tax crypto[2]
Although South Africa is crypto friendly, they also don't have any regulatory law on cryptocurrency while the Nigeria government is somehow hostile to cryprocurrency due to them favoring CBDC, they somehow have not tagged cryptocurrency as illegal yet. 

In order to have an attractive place to set up Bitcoin mining, the stated factors by the OP should be met by the place where the mining farm is targeted.  Patching good information about Africa that appears in different places is not convincing at all especially each places has their own government and leaders.

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[1] https://freemanlaw.com/cryptocurrency/rwanda/
[2] https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/11/21/kenya-proposes-bill-to-tax-crypto/

Op I appreciate you for this statistics and the good information given to the world. Africa is a good continent to invest on mining business. We really needs mining experts to come and mine in Africa. Africa is also blessed with natural resources which can be used for the Mining plants. Some of such resources has been mentioned by the OP like, Seas, And Rivers, Waste, Crude oil and sun which can be used to to generate electricity.

In the area of mining, electricity is the major factor and the aspect of electricity has been tackle then every other things become secondary. Op once again thank you for this awareness.

Ping times to jo-burg from europe were terrible when I had a node down there.

alas, ping times are directly related to the distance, Johannesburg is in South Africa, it's the furthest point in Africa from Europe,  half of Africa is closer to the EU than the east part of U.S, EU is closer to the majority of African countries than to the western part of the U.S, a random example would be ping from Lagos to London, which averages below 100ms, a much better result than most other locations in respect to London.

One thing that really stood out to me is the friendly people of Africa. It's so important to have a welcoming and supportive community when setting up a business, and it sounds like African nations have a lot to offer in that regard.

I think it's great to consider all the factors when deciding where to mine Bitcoin, and Africa definitely seems like a promising option.

Very nice review, from what I've heard from people trying to start a mining operation in Africa mostly they were struggling with issues like high crime, political instability, corruption and unstable power supply. Africa has huge potential, but is not ready to host any significant mining farms at the moment. Please change my mind. 

As far as the topic at hand is concerned, you don't need a data center to mine Bitcoin, many mining farms do exist in Africa, they face many issues but internet connection is not one of them.

Power infrastructure is the main concern, whatever Statista has to say about how cheap electricity is in Africa is pretty much far from accurate, power is cheap in most African countries because it's subsidized, and even the oil-rich countries don't own enough petroleum refineries, so the cost of electricity is pretty on the high end even for those countries, and since it's subsidized, it's pretty limited, many countries don't produce anything above 5000-10000MW worth of power, Africa as-is is a terrible place for any large mining operation.

Not only that but you also can not really use the heat for other purposes. If you own a warehouse in Siberia you can have a mining section somewhere in a corner and as a side effect your warehouse is heated for free. This will sadly not work in Africa and also cooling water etc will be more challenging.

Well said, the use of heat and the sun is crucial. It's possible to generate energy from heat, whether it's for making hot water to heat things like water in hotels or hospitals, as you mentioned, and/or we can use it to generate electricity with PV-panels.

If you create a good project to generate electricity using solar radiation, you could obtain free electricity to power another mining project with numerous cooling equipments and anything else you might need. It would be very interesting to mine in Africa imo.