[VIDEO INTERVIEW] A Chat with Founder, Machankura – The First Bitcoin USSD Service in Africa

BitKE · 2026-01-05T20:56:07+00:00

In an exclusive interview, Kgothatso, founder of Machankura, discusses challenges and successes of Africa's first Bitcoin USSD service, its expansion, user experience, and future plans. The service, named after a slang term for money, navigates legal and operational hurdles.

BitKE

2026-01-05 20:56:07

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BitKE sat down for an exclusive interview with the founder of Machankura – the first Bitcoin USSD service in Africa.

Machankura is a slang word for ‘Money’ in South African townships.

Discussing the challenges faced during the launch of Machankura, Kgothatso, the founder of the service, highlighted getting reliable service providers as a big challenge.

Except for Namibia, Machankura has deployed the service via Africa’s Talking across the other markets it is currently operational.

In this interview you will learn:

00:00 – Intro
02:44 How did Machankura come up?
04:30 – The Meaning of Machankura
05:09 – Challenges of a USSD crypto in Africa
07:47 – About legal implications
10:10 – About the expansion of Machankura
11:06 – Coming up with Usernames
13:12 – Number of current users\Countries
14:48 – About Satoshi’s
16:26 – Ease of getting a Machankura account
17:41 – Base network of operation
22:05 – Transaction rates\fees
22:50 – Machankura partnerships
24:54 – Futuristic plans
25:53 – Advice to Start-Ups

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