Ep. 59: Abubakar Nur Khalil - The Future of Africa’s CBDC & Bitcoin

My guest today is Abubakar Nur Khalil, a Nigerian Bitcoin Core contributor, CEO of the Bitcoin venture fund Recursive Capital, and one of only four board members of Btrust—a nonprofit supporting Bitcoin development in Africa. At just 25 years old, Abubakar is transforming the African Bitcoin ecosystem by training developers, advancing Bitcoin adoption, and supporting decentralized financial solutions. In this episode, we explore Nigeria’s CBDC rollout of the eNaira, why it failed, and accompanying cash shortages, as well as the growing Bitcoin adoption. Abubkar shares his journey from contributing to Bitcoin Core to leading Btrust's mission of decentralizing Bitcoin development in the Global South. He also shares about the challenges of scaling Bitcoin adoption in Africa, the revolutionary role of Bitcoin mining in electrifying rural communities, and the untapped potential of Bitcoin in empowering Africa’s youth and businesses.  ► If you got value, please like, comment, share, follow and support my work. Thank you! -- SPONSORS -- ►► Get your TREZOR wallet & accessories, with a 5% discount, using my code at checkout (get my discount code from the episode - yep, you’ll have to watch it): https://affil.trezor.io/SHUn  -- SPECIAL OFFERS – ►► Enjoy the Little HODLer products, learn about sound money while having fun! use code EFRAT for 10% off on non-sale items: https://thelittlehodler.com/  ►► Get 10% off on all books, inc. “The Inverse of Clown World”, using the code EFRAT https://bitcoininfinitystore.com ►► Join me in any of these upcoming events:https://www.efrat.blog/p/upcoming-events  -- LINKS – Abubakar’s Twitter: https://x.com/ihate1999  Abubakar on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/abubakarnurkhalil/  BTrust’s Website: https://www.btrust.tech/  Abubakar’s Nostr npub: npub1sn0q3zptdcm8qh8ktyhwtrnr9htwpykav8qnryhusr9mcr9ustxqe4tr2x Efrat's Twitter: https://twitter.com/efenigson Efrat's Telegram: https://t.me/efenigson Watch/listen on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/yourethevoice Support Efrat's work: ⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/efenigson   ⁠ Support Efrat with Bitcoin: https://geyser.fund/project/efenigson -- CHAPTERS – 00:00 Coming Up… 00:57 Introduction to Abubakar 03:48 The Journey to Becoming a Board Member of Btrust 09:08 Btrust’s Vision & Support for African Bitcoin Developers 12:58 Being Young & Successful 15:48 The eNaira - Nigeria’s CBDC 21:58 Cash Shortages in Nigeria 25:58 eNaira’s Failure & Speeding up Bitcoin Adoption 32:41 The CNGN - Nigeria's Stablecoin Initiative 35:01 Africa's Economic Landscape and Bitcoin Mining 40:15 Corruption and Governance Challenges in Africa 42:32 How Common Struggles Unify Africa 44:32 Non-Smartphones Can Use The Lightning Network 46:53 Ethiopia's Energy and Bitcoin Mining Potential 48:20 Why Are Most Bitcoin Transactions in Africa B2B 50:25 Regulatory Developments for Bitcoin Exchanges in Nigeria 52:54 Promising Future Projects in Bitcoin 56:58 Message of Hope