SA man banks on digital currency, has plans for PE

The New York-based international cryptocurrency market research company CoinMarketCap puts the global worth of the growing industry at R3 trillion in digital assets – a development that has this week seen the International Monetary Fund sending a clear message to finance ministers and central banks, meeting in Washington, that the digital currency is on their countries’ doorstep.

The new economy has also led to the wealthy G-7 countries discussing broad guidelines on how best to deal with the digital tsunami.

Trevor Tambo. Picture: Supplied

Against this background, South African businessperson Trevor Tambo, pictured, who has for several years been sceptical about Bitcoin, has now become the latest player to enter the industry.

Tambo has launched a crypto currency exchange platform called National Digital Asset Exchange (NDAX) which, next year, will become the first black-owned platform to hit the SA market.

“On social media platforms like Facebook, NDAX has 11,000 registered followers. On LinkedIn, the company has 3,000 followers,” said Tambo. “This amount of following, which augurs well ahead of the official launch next year, will translate into R113 million a day, at a mere 1,000 Bitcoins traded in South Africa.”

Born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, Tambo has 17 years’ experience in the financial sector, having served in leadership positions at Absa, First National Bank and Capitec.

Growing up in Port Elizabeth, once a thriving economic hub for four decades but now with an unemployment rate of 33%, is something that has irked Tambo.

“We want to make Port Elizabeth a crypto city, similar to Malacca – the capital of the Malaysian State, which attracts about three million tourists a year.

“With the Asian traders accounting for about 70% of the global crypto trading volumes, we want to attract that market,” Tambo said.

“In the first quarter of 2020, we are looking at creating 50 new jobs and gradually increasing the number to 250 by hiring historically disadvantaged young people.”

– brians@citizen.co.za

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