Meet Ruth Iselema, the Bitmama of the African blockchain space
In 2016, after Ruth Iselema got scammed of ₦250,000 (~ $1200 at the time) trying to sell bitcoin, she saw an opportunity to solve a problem. At the time, there were hardly any structured crypto-trading platforms in Africa, just WhatsApp and Telegram communities, many of which she was a member of.
“Even though I did my due diligence, I still got scammed, she recalls, “so I decided this has to stop”.
Enlisting a couple of trader friends, she set out to build a crypto exchange platform but things didn’t work out.
“Everyone just had different views on how things should work, so we eventually went our separate ways.”
Undeterred, Ruth set out on her own. The first major step? Leaving her hometown and comfort zone — Port Harcourt — for Lagos with barely any validation for what she was...