Bitcoin in Kibera
How Bitcoin fits into everyday life in Kibera
Soweto West in Kibera has one of the most documented Bitcoin circular economies in Africa. It started with garbage collectors, grew through peer-to-peer teaching, and now includes over 40 merchants. The walk shows you how that happened.
At street level
Bitcoin came to Kibera in 2022 through a waste management program run by Afribit — garbage collectors were paid in sats and trained to teach their neighbours. By 2025, over 40 merchants in Soweto West accept Bitcoin, more than 600 people have been trained, and the model has been covered by the BBC, AP, and Forbes. The walk takes you into that story at ground level.
What merchants care about
The merchants you visit on this walk did not adopt Bitcoin for ideological reasons. They adopted it because the fees were lower, the settlement was faster, and a neighbour showed them how.
What the walk shows you
BBC News, the Associated Press, and Forbes have all reported on Bitcoin in Kibera. The walk gives you the ground-level version of that story, with the people who are actually living it.
Merchant stories
Merchant stories from the walk
Merchant story
The vegetable stand
Dotea Anyim runs a roadside vegetable stall in Soweto West. Around 10% of her customers pay in Bitcoin. She prefers it: "It is cheap and fast and doesn't have any transaction costs. When people pay using bitcoin, I save that money and use cash to restock vegetables." That saving habit matters. It is Bitcoin as a financial tool, not just a payment method.
Merchant story
The neighbourhood duka
For a small shop selling soap, airtime, and flour, the economics are tight. M-Pesa fees are free below 100 shillings, but rise quickly after that. Lightning transactions are free regardless of amount. For a merchant turning over dozens of small sales per day, the difference compounds. Some hold sats. Some convert immediately. The conversation about which to do is happening every day.
Merchant story
The service business
A barber or salon accepting Bitcoin is navigating something slightly different — repeat customers, tips, and the social expectation of immediacy. Bitcoin settlement is instant. There is no float period, no dispute risk, no waiting for funds to clear. For a one-person service business, that simplicity has real value.
Why it matters
Why the circular economy idea matters on the walk
These are not illustrative examples. The merchants you meet on this walk are real people with real businesses who made a practical decision to accept Bitcoin. Their reasons are worth hearing directly.
Fees are not an abstraction here
M-Pesa is free below 100 shillings, but fees scale quickly above that. For merchants making dozens of small sales a day, Lightning's zero-fee structure is a concrete advantage — not a talking point.
No account, no ID, no waiting
Nineteen of the first fifty people in Afribit's waste program had no ID and no bank account. A Lightning wallet needed neither. That is financial access, not theory.
Adoption that started from the ground up
Bitcoin reached Kibera through garbage collectors being paid in sats in 2022. They learned the wallet, then taught their neighbours. By 2025, over 40 merchants had joined. No bank launched it. No government mandated it.
Keep it honest
Real challenges still exist
- Bitcoin's price moves. For someone earning a dollar a day, that uncertainty is real — not a talking point.
- Education takes time. Afribit uses peer-to-peer training because it is the only model that actually scales inside the community.
- Kenya has no finalized crypto regulation yet. Afribit operates in that space, transparently and without pretending the risk is not there.