Bundle Africa is one of the newest Social Payment Apps that are set to make crypto easily accessible to the masses. In this article, I will be covering everything you need to know about Bundle Africa — What they are, its vision and mission, registration process, its benefits, limitations, and a complete in-app walkthrough.
Introduction
Africa is the most fertile continent for cryptocurrencies; and considering that the continent has the largest youngest population in the world, a billion-plus child expectancy in the next 30 years, enthusiastic digital inclination, and conspicuous financial crisis, it makes sense that a blockchain or cryptocurrency seed planted in this part of the world will blossom beyond our imagination.
Nevertheless, don’t take my word for it — what do I know after all🙂 — but listen to Changpeng Zhao, popularly called CZ, the founder of Binance:
“… We view the entire African Market as a really key market …. It is a very much untapped market…”
Even the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey thinks that Africa will define the future of cryptocurrencies.
Africa is not without challenges though, as CZ mentioned in the same Ask Me Anything (AMA) session where he called Africa fertile ground for cryptocurrency adoption.
He mentioned that a major challenge with cryptocurrency adoption in the continent was the disconnect between fiat and cryptocurrencies, as exchanges find it difficult to link with African banks because of the non-existent API technology and also the difficulty in building business relationships.
You and I have experienced the result of this exchange-bank disconnect when we plan to buy or cash out our crypto.
In most cases, we have to look for a peer or an escrow platform on Telegram, WhatsApp, or a dedicated website to buy either Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other cryptocurrencies and this has exposed us more to scammers and fraudsters.
Well, I’m happy to let you know that there’s now a solution — Bundle Africa.
One whose mission is to drive crypto adoption in Africa and facilitate its day to day use.
Bundle Africa is currently, the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to jump into the crypto space or cash out your crypto assets directly into your bank account
What is Bundle Africa?
For cryptocurrency to thrive, transactions carried out with it must feel like just another traditional financial transaction and that’s what the founder, Yele Bademosi, aims to do with his newly launched crypto & cash social payment app.
In his words,
“We built Bundle with the digitally native African user in mind. They are social, online, and connected across geographical boundaries. They prefer their financial services delivered digitally via mobile apps as opposed to visiting brick and mortar bank branches. We decided to build a mobile wallet that supports cash and crypto, and makes using crypto feel like just another digital financial transaction done on a mobile app,”
Bundle Africa is a social payment app designed to achieve day to day use of cryptocurrency and fiat alike.
Via its several payment channels, such as card payments, bank transfers, and mobile money, Bundle Africa fills the chasm which once existed between fiat and crypto in Africa by lowering the entry barrier into the crypto space that and making buying & selling crypto as easy as hopping on a bike.
Bundle actually achieves placing crypto and fiat pari passu.
Not only does Bundle make buying and selling crypto an easy-peasy task, but it also takes the stress out of storing and transferring fiat and crypto to clients, friends, and loved ones.
Bundle Africa, allows its users to store crypto and fiat in the same place – in its smart wallet.
The smart wallet is divided into a fiat card and crypto card in which users can hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), and Binance USD-pegged stablecoin (BUSD) and the Nigerian Naira (NGN) in the fiat division.
As at the time of writing only Naira is supported in the App.
However, Bundle plans to support more cryptocurrencies and fiat in more than 30 African countries in the months to come.
Bundle Africa simplifies sending cash and cryptocurrency to having a user’s phone number, just as WhatsApp simplifies peer-to-peer messaging.
Users of the Bundle App can easily import contacts from their phonebooks, send them a request, (if accepted) send cash or crypto.
No doubt anonymity is sacrificed, for now, but its concept of linking transactions to phone numbers is an efficient one.
Funds transfer can finally be possible by just having a person’s phone number.
If you’re already thinking that Bundle is a subsidiary of Binance because of the BNB and the BUSD cryptocurrencies it already supports, you’re wrong😂.
However, the founder, Yele Bademosi, was the former director of the BinanceLabs project.
Bundle did secure a whopping sum of $450k preseed raise from Binance.
Regardless, it is independent in its operations — at least, on paper.
Bundle Africa’s vision is to drive cryptocurrency adoption in Africa.
Making it fun and easy to interact and transact between fiat and crypto while still creating multiple use cases for crypto as it tries to bring economic, financial freedom, and prosperity to Africans.
It’s no wonder then that Binance backs up this project, as their and objectives closely align with CZ’s desires and Binance’s vision to make crypto globally, and easily accessible.
Both parties believe that Bundle is a viable solution to the socio-economic and hyperinflation problems Africans face today.
How To Sign-Up a Free Bundle Africa Account
Creating an account on the Bundle App is as easy as giving someone your phone number and getting a text message from them minutes later.
Let’s walk through the registration process briefly, shall we?
First, you need to download and install the Bundle Africa mobile App from Play Store or App Store, depending on your device.
At the first launch of the app, it reveals its splash screen which spends less than a minute, and then gives way to the registration screen shown below.
Bundle Africa Registration
Tapping on the arrow beside the flag opens a dropdown of several countries from which you can select your country.
When you do, your country call code replaces the previous one there, in this case, “+234” for Nigeria.
As shown in the placeholder, when typing in your phone number, leave out the first “0”, just add the remaining 10 digits, if you’re from Nigeria.
That is, if your phone number is 080273477112, just type in 80273477112 and you’re good to go.
If you input a phone number that has been used to sign up before, the App will ask you to input the password tied to that phone number and sign in, instead.
However, if it’s a new phone number, you’re sent a one-time password via SMS which the app automatically reads and fills in when you receive the message.
When that is done, then you’d have to create a password for this phone number.
The password must be a minimum of 8 characters and must include at least one upper case, lower case, a number, and a special character.
The inclusion of each of these characters checks good as it is added as shown below.
Bundle Africa Password Set
After saving the set password, Bundle requires you to link an email address to the account for recovery purposes.
Completing this launches you into the wallet interface which we shall take a look at below in the App’s features below.
Bundle Africa In-App Interface & Operations
After sign-up (different from verification) is complete, you are launched into the App homepage or interface as seen in the image below.
The Bundle App Wallet
The wallet interface holds some interesting features, including, funds request or pay buttons, balance black card, profile image at the top left, add cash icon at the top right, a list of supported assets, and a ledger of transactions.
The fund request and send features represented by the buttons in the image above allows users to easily pay and request payment from anyone whose contact number they have and is signed up on the Bundle App.
Tapping on the button leads you to select to whom the funds will be sent and then the currency of choice.
You can also input a description of the transaction.
When this is completed, you will get a notification via the update tab to tell you of the status of your transaction.
The Bundle App Supported Fiat Assets.
The Bundle App currently supports only the Nigerian Naira (NGN) for fiat assets.
It plans to support other currencies in the coming months.
Opening the NGN asset from the catalog of assets reveals the amount of value held and the ledger of transactions done in that particular currency.
Within the selected fiat “drawer” (I call it a drawer because the user can draw it in or out as shown by the arrows in the above image placed by the “handle”) you can add fiat currency with the “Add Cash” button from any local bank account or withdraw with the “Cash out” button.
Charges apply and at the time of writing, adding funds to your wallet directly with a debit card attracts a 1.5% fee and via bank transfer attracts a flat fee of ₦150 ($0.38 approximately).
PS: Fees are charged from whatever medium funds are moved from i.e. If funds are being added to the in-app fiat wallet from a bank account, fees are charged from the bank account and vice-versa.
The fiat drawer has an About panel that provides some of the assets FAQs and some tips about the asset in a WhatsApp story-like manner.
The Bunde App Supported Crypto Assets
Bundle Africa at the time of writing, supports only the 4 aforementioned crypto assets.
They are found in the wallet interface alongside the fiat asset.
No differentiation between fiats and crypto at the time of writing as seen below.
Similar to the Fiat drawer, it has a “withdraw” and “receive” buttons replacing the cash-action buttons of the fiat drawer.
It also has the buy and sell buttons, to allow users to easily exchange crypto assets to their local fiat currency or buy crypto with funds in their fiat wallet.
Above the buttons is the balance of the value held in the particular cryptocurrency whose drawer is opened.
For the first three months after its launch, Bundle has removed charges on buying and selling cryptocurrency. Whoop! Whoop!!
The “withdraw” and “receive” buttons allow users to send in or send out funds to or from other external wallets or exchanges.
Below the black card holding the value balance and buttons are two panels: The transaction history & about — just like in the fiat drawer.
The transaction history is a ledger of transactions done in that particular crypto.
Just as in the fiat About panel, that of crypto holds FAQs about the crypto and some tips about the cryptocurrency generally.
The Bundle App User Profile Tab
The user profile can be assessed via its stationed icon at the bottom of the app or via the circular profile picture which is at the top left corner of the wallet interface or within some drawers.
Within the profile, as seen above, the user can change profile information, which includes a display name.
The username once set can not be changed. As seen above, mine is @CED.
Account verification involves inputting full government name and date of birth and your Bank Verification Number (BVN).
That’s all. The account is verified in less than a minute.
Bundle Africa Affiliate Opportunity
Within “Refer and Earn” you can get a referral link with which you can invite users to the App and earn commissions.
The good news is, both users get ₦500 ($1.25 approximately) when the person you invited maintains at least ₦5000 ($12.5 approx) in the wallet for 30 days or more.
Update: The above conditions have been modified to having the invited person make that same amount of money mentioned above in the first 15 days after referral – Trading volume counts both buys and sells.
The payment method section allows the user to add or delete added cards or bank accounts.
The Bundle App Security Tab
Via the security settings, you can change Pin or recover lost Pin. The app uses a four-digit pin to secure your account from unauthorized access.
Finally, from this tab, you could contact customer support via the help center, learn more about the product from the team or other users within the community, and logout from your account accordingly.
The Bundle App Updates Tab.
This can also be called the notifications tab.
Deposits, withdrawals, payment requests notifications are all cataloged within this section of the app.
Advantages of the Bundle Africa Social Payments App:
- The entry barrier to the cryptocurrency space is greatly lowered with this Social payment app as adding fiat and buying crypto with it is almost 100% seamless.
- Crypto and fiat can be sent from peer to peer just by having a peer’s phone number. This doesn’t change the normal way to withdraw crypto to another wallet that feature is still there as “withdraw”.
- An earning Opportunity for users who have a lot of friends.
- It has a good dollar to fiat (Naira) exchange.
Disadvantaged of the Bundle Africa Social Payments App:
- There’s no anonymity with the app.
- The major theme of decentralization of Cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology is not upheld. The bundle is a centralized social payments app.
- Currently available only in Nigeria only (for now).
- Exchange rate not so great for Buyers.
- The minimum transaction allowed for Ether (buying & selling) is about $10. For all others, it’s about $2.
Conclusion
Bundle does simplify transferring fiat or crypto by removing the hassle of having to deal with really long addresses or even local account details.
Friends signed up on Bundle on your contact list can easily be transacted with.
The users of the App fondly referred to as “bundlers” give good reviews about the project.
You can see some feedbacks on twitter via the hashtag #BundleFeedbackFriday or #BundleFF
And that’s it! I hope it wasn’t too much for you to chew, swallow, and digest.
Let me know if there’s a better or similar social payment app out there. I will be happy to share my thoughts on it too.
