Nigeria accounts for 60% of stablecoin inflows in sub-Saharan Africa

[Chibit01]

IMF: Nigeria accounts for 60% of stablecoin inflows in sub-Saharan Africa

According to the report, the attraction of stablecoins lies in their ability to facilitate cross-border payments and remittances at lower costs and faster speeds than traditional channels.

“The appeal is straightforward. Stablecoins allow users with a smartphone and internet access to receive remittances or make cross-border payments in minutes, often at lower cost than traditional channels,” the fund said.

I bombed into this article about doing research on something else, and one thing caught my attention about it not paying too much attention to the part which pointing at the risk of high demand and use of stablecoin for our local currency.

Earlier before now, I do believe that the large majority of Nigerians which are into crypto come in just for airdrop claiming to make fast money and leave, few percentages are for buying and holding a few altcoins and a lesser percentage in bitcoin alone.

I never thought that some actually have embraced it in their business and considered it the best payment means in terms of international deal settlement to the point of occupying 65% of the total inflow of all stablecoins in all of sub-Saharan Africa, which consists of more than 40 countries combined.

[Charles-Tim]

I later confirmed this on their site

https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2026/06/16/stablecoins-in-nigeria

But according to what IMF said, it has been since 2019.

Within sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria accounts for roughly 60 percent of stablecoin inflows since 2019.

I know Nigerians like fiat collateralized stable coins, but I do not know it can be 1 country having 60% adoption for something among 49 countries.

[Coin_info]

I know Nigerians like fiat collateralized stable coins, but I do not know it can be 1 country having 60% adoption for something among 49 countries.

Maybe it is as a result of our population because with the population count we have, we should be dominant in anything that we have most of our people focused on and I think for cryptocurrency this is the case This is why I can understand and believe the 60% estimation among other African countries considering we have a large population of youths with many interested in crypto and more coming in. Nigeria will dominate those figures for a long time.

[OsaiEmma]

Of course Nigeria will be. If you look closely, amongst all the sub-saharan African countries, Nigeria has the second largest economy followed by South Africa, and we carry out international transactions more. I love Bitcoin, and Bitcoin is the way to go especially when it comes to investing in crypto. But I feel stable coin is best suited for international transfers because it is less volatile and stably priced without much or no fluctuation.

Imagine a means of international transfers that is unrestricted, stable, fast and with less fees. Of course it should be widely adopted by a large economy with such large population.

[Charles-Tim]

Maybe it is as a result of our population because with the population count we have, we should be dominant in anything that we have most of our people focused on and I think for cryptocurrency this is the case This is why I can understand and believe the 60% estimation among other African countries considering we have a large population of youths with many interested in crypto and more coming in. Nigeria will dominate those figures for a long time.

Lists of 3 most populous countries in sub-sahara Africa:

Nigeria: ~242.4 million people
Ethiopia: ~138.9 million people
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): ~116.5 million people

Can you see that just the population of Ethiopia and DRC is more than our population if both are added together.

The total population of Sub-Saharan African people is approximately 1.3 billion people. That is more than 4 times larger than Nigeria population if Nigeria is excluded from the 1.3 billion people.

[IjawMan]

I know Nigerians like fiat collateralized stable coins, but I do not know it can be 1 country having 60% adoption for something among 49 countries.

Maybe it is as a result of our population because with the population count we have, we should be dominant in anything that we have most of our people focused on and I think for cryptocurrency this is the case This is why I can understand and believe the 60% estimation among other African countries considering we have a large population of youths with many interested in crypto and more coming in. Nigeria will dominate those figures for a long time.

The population of the country plays a significant role in that percentage covered according to the IMF report but another factor that increases that numbers and have maintained Nigeria in the lead for stablecoins inflow is the persistent speedy fall of the value of our country currency.

The stablecoins ushers an alternative to retain value for our money and the advantage is worth weightier to holding out money in the banks in Naira with how inflation of prices of commodities and services continue to spike against the Naira.