In this interview with Inside Gaming Africa’s Mickaella at the ICE London 2022, the Co-founder of Basqet, Buchi Okoro gives some detailed insights into Basqet and how the crypto payments company helps gaming operators succeed in Africa.
Basqet is a cryptocurrency startup that provides a payment gateway for merchants to process transactions easily and seamlessly using cryptos. The startup facilitates limitless transactions between traders and their customers in over 160 countries of the world. With Africa’s gaming startups increasing, Basqet hopes to make payments processing easier and better for all parties, whilst helping brands embrace financial systems inclusivity.
Learn more about the solutions that Basqet provides to the iGaming market in Africa and how you can integrate them for your business, too.
Mickaella: Please introduce yourself
Buchi: I’m Buchi, co-founder Basqet.
Michaella: Could you tell us a bit more about your company Basqet and what you do and provide?
Buchi: At Basqet, we make it easy for businesses to accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment. We are open for any form of business looking to accept payments of invoices using cryptocurrency, and we help settle the businesses in crypto or fiat.
Mickaella: Could you tell us how you started, where you are based and your target market?
Buchi: Trading is one of the most popular use cases for crypto – making money, making some quick bucks. But for crypto to become what it is meant to be, there needs to be ways for people to get more value from crypto, more ways for people to spend crypto and use it for real life stuff. And what crypto does is to make money borderless and easy for people to move money around borders without stress. So, Basqet answers the question: what more can I do with my cryptocurrency? How can I make it easy for people to become a part of the global financial system? That’s why we decided to build Basqet as a way for merchants to easily accept cryptocurrency, which means that businesses can now get paid from anybody, anywhere in the world. We think that would be powerful for those in the system and it stems from the challenges we faced. The startup is headquartered in Canada, while I live in Nigeria and Dubai. But even as a Nigerian, Paypal doesn’t allow me to pay a merchant, nor sign up and use their services. This means that as a Nigerian, I’m excluded from doing business with the hundreds of millions of merchants who use Paypal across the world. But Bitcoin makes it possible for me to be a part of this system. So, extending this participation in the global payment system to anyone, anywhere in the world is what we are trying to do at Basqet.
Mickaella: Tell us more about Basqet’s relationship with the gaming industry.
Buchi: We found that one of our biggest markets, some of our best customers, people who found the most value are gaming merchants. The people who are looking to allow more customers take part in gaming using cryptocurrencies and crypto makes it possible for people anywhere in the world to play games, deposit and transfer value. So a company that needs to go to various markets like the EU, Africa, US, needs different payment partners. But crypto makes it possible to have one integration that allows people from over 180 countries in the world to sign up at betting operators, deposit hassle-freely and play their favourite games. This has been powerful and we have fantastic relationships with gaming merchants, as well. So, it’s been really, really interesting for us.
Mickaella: Why is crypto payment important for the gaming industry?
Buchi: Crypto payment is important simply because of the potential for exclusion from traditional payment systems. I have my own personal experience, where I was trying to pay for my PlayStation game and I tried various cards and methods, yet nothing worked. The only thing that worked was me using my crypto to buy a gift card to pay for my game. Multiply that across hundreds of millions of people without access to regular financial systems, who are basically excluded. What this means is paying for the basic things you’re able to do, like paying for Netflix, basically paying for any product on the web. You don’t have access to all of these things because you probably don’t live in the UK or US. But crypto makes it feasible for everyone, everywhere in the world to now become a part of this system. Of course, some of the most important things to us involve putting in place the compliance checks both on the cryptocurrency and the people making the payments. This is really important to us, and once that’s done, people can do what they want to do. They can just become a part of this financial system without creating barriers and gates that block people out. So, that’s what we are trying to build with gaming and that’s part of the greatest value we’ve seen in the gaming industry, as well.
Mickaella: Why should African gaming operators use your company?
Buchi: For us and even beyond our company, we want a lot more people to take a deeper look at crypto simply because of the advantages it offers. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Basqet, but at Basqet we’ve developed a very, very deep expertise in handling and servicing gaming merchants. We have a unique understanding of how to settle them, flexibility on even the KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures. We understand the licensing requirements around gaming merchants. So it has sort of become our forte on being able to service gaming merchants. And I think that’s why we are at ICE, that’s why we’ve had such great relationships with some of our merchants and some of the biggest gaming platform providers, as well. So, it’s sort of our niche, we are the strongest for humans and crypto, as well.
Mickaella:The last question I have for you is: how do you see the future of the gaming industry in Africa?
Buchi: This is an interesting question. Personally, I think Africa, for most things in the world, is the next frontier of growth simply because Africa is the youngest continent with a median age of 20 years old. This means the entire African population is young, hence these are the people that will be getting into the workforce, these are the people whose income level is expected to rise over the next couple of years. So, it makes sense for all of the people who are positioning for the African market to start doing that now. It’s a continent with over 2 billion people. As such, for anyone looking for growth, for anyone looking to unlock the next frontier of growth for their business, it makes sense to be playing in Africa. And to be tapping into the young, young population and all of the people that are just entering the workforce, increasing their income level, increasing their participation in the global financial system. They are getting Netflix accounts; they are now able to buy PlayStation games and all of that. So, yeah, Africa has growth for the rest of the world and all of the workforce for the rest of the world. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic changed things, so everyone is able to live remotely, the world is literally becoming much more global. So it makes sense that everyone should want to be in Africa and play in Africa, as well.
Mickaella: Thank you for that. So, how have you been finding the show so far?
Buchi: The show has actually been pretty interesting. We’ve met fantastic people, lots of great contacts, lots of great people. I’m looking forward to coming back to ICE next year. It’s been an amazing experience, and great drinks, too!