Kunmi Otitoju is the founder of culture magazine Yonderland and Minku Design — a boutique fashion startup based in Lagos, Nigeria and Barcelona, Spain which is responsible for selling handmade Yoruba-themed leather bags, purses, jewelry and other accessories online. In a move to keep up with innovative trends, the startup has also recently decided to accept Bitcoin as a method of payment.
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In an interview with Founders Grid, Otitoju explains the reason behind adopting this sometimes controversial digital currency. “I think Bitcoin is somewhere up there with those revolutionary ideas. And it is a payment system that is carrying emerging economies like Nigeria (where I am from) along.”
The significance of Bitcoin has previously been picked up by companies such as Kipochi which has launched a Bitcoin transfer service in Kenya using M-Pesa as its running platform.
Although Minku has an international agenda, the importance of an experimental, if not innovative, trade currency such as Bitcoin in Africa is exciting and might revolutionise the way things are being done on the continent.
Otitoju agrees, adding that while Bitcoin could well be the future of open, unregulated trade, it still has its share of controversies: “It’s had a bit of a shaky start, with Silk Road, the volatile trading of the past few months, and the Chinese government banning the official trading of Bitcoin there.”
Otitoju further explains how ecommerce is currently taking off in Nigeria with innovative, sometimes unconventional services being implemented such as payment-on-delivery. She further encourages out-of-the-box thinking in the local startup environment saying that competition is fiercer in every major industry than you might imagine.
New trending technologies such as Bitcoin are changing the way we communicate, make purchases, and relate with our banks. Minku Design hopes to keep up with, and be part of this evolution. “Minku is somewhere at the intersection of fashion design and technology, and accepting Bitcoin is something that fits with our goals of running a fully international online shop,” she says.
Source via TechCabal
