Nelly Diop - Buying Bitcoin in Africa (Ejara)

Not From Silicon Valley

It was 1994.

Nelly Diop was a little girl living in Dawala, Cameroon - when all of a sudden, at the drop of a dime, France devalued the CFA franc -- the currency used by more than a dozen of its former African colonies.

What’d that mean?

Well, in countries like Gabon, Chad, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and many others -- just like that, over night, millions and millions of people lost half their purchasing power, half their wealth.

Gone -- into thin air. With absolutely no say in the matter.

And for Nelly, coming from a middle class Cameroonian family, things weren’t easy...

Now fast forward 20 years or so from that day in 1994...and Nelly, while living in Europe, in her words...she “met Bitcoin”.

She - with eyes wide open - went through whitepapers and exchanges, and became an early adopter of the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tezos...not to make a quick buck….but because the assets were hers...not at the control of a central bank...or even another country far, far away.

And Nelly’s enthusiasm for crypto?

Well, by hosting meet-ups and crypto events in Cameroon, her passion for blockchain technology became SO contagious that in 2020...Ejara was born: the first-ever crypto exchange and non-custodial wallet built for Francophone Africa.

A little over a year later?

Ejara has over 10,000 users... and with a seed raise of $2m just a month ago, Nelly Diop just raised more money than any other female founder in Francophone African history.

But the future for Nelly and Ejara?

It’s not just giving Francophone Africans easy access to the likes of SHIB and Doge...it’s about improving the continent’s financial literacy and striving for financial inclusion all throughout Africa.

This is Nelly’s story...and Nelly’s vision.