Kenya May Recognize Crypto, But Government Wants a Share of Income
In a recent article, I wrote about the need for African countries to close the gap in South Africa's development success for a thriving African economy and not to be seen as competition.
Eric from Kenya made some salient points which I felt he expatiated on the article, to summarize what he stressed most is, Africa's poor leadership and management which consequently has consistently increased the poverty level of Africa for decades.
When you have leaders that are nothing but clowns leading the nations, the outcome is what Africans have been living with for decades and the change the continent's youths seek is rather looking hopeless by the day.
I chatted with a friend recently as to why I chose to move to Benin instead of Nigeria where I was born and grew up and to simply put, my reason is I can't stand Nigeria's mediocrity.
Cryptocurrency in Kenya
A while back an official from the Kenyan government publicly stated cryptocurrency has no use, making such a claim on national TV shows how clueless these fossils are about cryptocurrency or they know the truth and would rather choose to deceive their people like they have been doing for years.
Therefore we can't entirely say cryptocurrency is recognized officially in Kenya and neither is it banned.
But when the government looks at taxing cryptocurrency income, it tells us crypto is on its way to being recognized in Kenya, though we can't say to what extent yet.
Kenya’s lawmakers are considering the introduction of a 3% tax on cryptocurrency and nonfungible token transfers and a 15% tax on monetized online content, according to a newly introduced bill.
Source
This was met with mixed reactions on Twitter, one being that cryptocurrency will be recognized in Kenya and the other taxation.
It is unclear whether the 3% on crypt transfer is a tax payable when one cashed out or it is for every transfer of cryptocurrency or NFT.
Content creators should be ready to part with 15% of their income from creating content online, to my understanding that includes Youtubers, etc.
In a global economy where unemployment is high, seeking other sources of income has been the way to survive the economic hardship with cryptocurrency and online content creation being sources of income sort after.
Placing heavy taxes on these sources of income clearly shows the intention of the leaders we have in place, they are not in office to make life easy for the people that elected them into office, rather their intention is the contrary.
Africa stands a chance in this age to catch up from all the years of mismanagement and poor leadership by embracing crypto with a regulation that is in the interest of the country and its people, blinding coming up with regulations that aren't of positive impact to the people and its economy is shooting itself.
The US is setting itself back over crypto adoption by going anti-crypto like it has lately, for Africa it is a chance to step up and embrace crypto instead of playing copycat all the time.
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Oh wow, 15% tax on monetized online content is a bit hefty in my opinion. They probably noticed the money flowing in so they want their share of the pie. Good that they plan on recognising crypto and creating a revenue stream from it.
The 15% is ridiculously high makes me wonder how these come up with decisions like this. Do they even have the interest of their own people at heart, it sometimes feels like our leaders are from another planet and have come to earth to inflict pain on us.
!PIZZA
True! It could be seen as a way to stifle the growth of creators in the crypto space. I doubt if there's a similar tax on the web2 space. I think it would have been more wise if they start with 3 or 5% and then extend gradually as the space matures.
Web 2 at present hosts a higher number of content creators compared to Web 3 but I think these guys are majorly concerned about getting their share of the pie regardless of whether content creation is on Web 2 or Web 3.
Makes sense. It's time for them to enter the digital space and they want to tackle both fronts at the same time.
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It's all about the money and I think countries should be more open to crypto. At the same time, I just wish that they don't suck the wealth out of everyone's hand. I remember last year we had a similar situation in India but I don't know where that went.
These leaders are on a mission to keep people poor and dependent on them, any sight of people trying to make money always attracts heavy taxation, I wonder why it has to be that way. I recall India was on a similar move as well, I am not sure how things panned out over there either.
!PIZZA
Great post bro and thank you for the mention. I still believe that mismanagement and poor leadership is what plagues most African countries. I am sure the current president of Kenya will not fight crypto as long as it makes money, what he is keen on is collecting tax from all income sources. In fact with the high unemployment, he wants young people to get online and make money where possible.
This is why I don't see crypto being banned anytime soon. What I don't know is how they plan to enforce the tax on those currently earning from cryptos, I will do my homework and find out.
Otherwise, I totally agree that Africa should embrace crypto more than ever. Am hearing that the new currency or CBDC that is going to be launched by BRICS to challenge the USD will be backed by BTC. Not sure if it's true but lets wait and see.
Thank you for sharing and have an amazing weekend :}
This is good coming from Kenya, it is always good to hear from first-hand sources, online source of income is only going to increase with crypto here as we progressed towards tokenization so it is going to be of benefit to individuals and nations that embrace it.
We shall see how the taxation on crypto develops over time, Kenya's crypto adoption rate has been impressive so far.
I should give BRICS some attention, not sure what is going on with that currency and the countries involved, though I think South Africa, Russia, and China are countries I saw involved last time in the headlines.
Have a great weekend bro.
!PIZZA